Activist-lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has described as misleading, the claim by the Finance Minister Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that the country lost N400 billion last year to fuel subsidy payment.
He also faulted the recommendation by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that the nation’s workforce be reduced by half to reduce government’s expenditure.
He said Sanusi’s recommendation was part of the well- designed anti-people policies of the ruling class targeted at impoverishing the poor.
Falana argued that the various investigations conducted into the deployment of the subsidy fund, after the last fuel price increase protest, showed that the country lost N1.7 trillion, which Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala as the Finance Minister and Coordinator of the Economy should be made to account for.
The lawyer said he wondered why Sanusi was not bothered by the entrenched culture of waste among public officers and the huge cost of funding the government and its alleged frivolities, as reflected in the huge sums allocated to funding the Federal Government and some of its institutions.
Falana, in a statement he issued yesterday in commemoration of the celebration of 100 years of trade unionism in the country, hailed the nation’s labour movement for its struggle against oppressive and anti-people’s policies of the leaders.
“The main finding of the probes is that whereas N245 billion was appropriated in 2011 for fuel subsidy, the Central Bank illegally paid out N2.3 trillion to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other fuel importers on the recommendation of the Federal Ministries of Finance and Petroleum Resources.
“Up till now, the lousy officials who committed such grave economic crimes have not been brought to book. In a very arrogant manner, the indicted officials are trying to divert attention of Nigerians by making reckless statements on the state of the economy.
“The statement credited to the Finance Minister two days ago that Nigeria lost N400 billion last year through fuel subsidy is misleading.
“If the genuine fuel imported into the country in 2011 was not more than N800 billion, it is submitted that the country lost N1.7 trillion which has to be accounted for by the Finance Minister and Coordinator of the Economy.
“Mr. Stanley Reginald, the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), has just disclosed that from January to October 2012 fuel subsidy payment was N679 billion as against the N1.3 trillion paid within the same period last year,” Falana said.
He argued that the CBN under Sanusi, rather than encourage commerce and investment, allegedly initiated dubious monetary policies that have kept interest rates beyond the reach of genuine investors.
“These anti-people’s policies constitute the cornerstone of the Jonathan Transformation Agenda.
“No doubt, Mr. Sanusi’s call is designed to cover up the looting of the economy. Not less than N3 trillion has been channelled to bail out banks which were run down by bank executives with the connivance of the corrupt inspectorate division of the CBN.
