Okey Ndiribe and Emman Ovuakporie
23 January 2013, Sweetcrude, Abuja — STAKEHOLDERS in the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme SURE-P, yesterday shunned an invitation by a House of Representatives panel set up to assess the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme of President Goodluck Jonathan.
They include Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Dieziani Allison-Madueke, Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Transportation, Sen. Abdullahi Umar, Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, Minister of Niger Delta, Mr. Godsday Orubebe, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Worgu and governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Members of the joint committees, however, vowed to deal with erring stakeholders if they failed to turn up on the rescheduled date for the probe which was fixed for February 12.
The Presidential committee on proceeds from the partial removal of subsidy on petroleum products by the government is headed by Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade.
Chieftains of Transport, Health, Finance, Niger Delta and Petroleum Ministries and the CBN governor who did not honour the lawmakers’ invitation were mandated to assist the SURE-P to deliver on the presidential promise of utilizing money realised from the partial removal of subsidy to provide hospitals, ease transportation for majority of Nigerians and repair the East-West Road in the Niger Delta.
Committees on Petroleum Resources(Downstream), Finance, and States and Local Government which were mandated to look into the implementation level of the SURE-P, through the joint-committee Chairman, Dakuku Peterside,PDP-Rivers, condemned what he claimed was a deliberate decision of the ministers not to honour the invitation of the House.
