The presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, on Monday said the fuel subsidy regime as being administered by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is inefficient.
Mr Abubakar made this submission through his campaign organisation on Monday.
The presidential hopeful was reacting to a PREMIUM TIMES report detailing how the federal government illegally diverted $1.05 billion (N378 billion at N360 to a dollar) sourced from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividend funds to secretly fund subsidy payment on petroleum products.
The report also showed that the diversion was done without the required consultation with states and the mandatory appropriation by the National Assembly.
“The Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation is alarmed by Premium Times report of illegal diversion of $1.05 billion to secretly fund subsidy payment on petroleum products,” a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES Monday said.
“This revelation has once again brought to the fore the need to review the administration and management of the subsidy regime by the Federal Government. We believe that the subsidy regime as it is currently being administered is inefficient and shrouded in secrecy.
“We are committed to the elimination of this process that is undertaken without any recourse to transparency and due process. Moreover, the retention of revenue by revenue earning agencies of the government for their operation is hardly done judiciously and responsibly.”
Mr Abubakar, through the campaign outfit, added that he will “commit to a review of that policy such that every revenue earning agency is brought into the federal budget in accordance with international best practice.”
PREMIUM TIMES
