The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee, chaired by Mark Gbillah, is looking into the theft of 48 million barrels of crude oil. The committee has threatened to sue members of the George Uboh-led Whistleblowers Network for making unfounded claims against the committee.
In the wee hours of Tuesday in Abuja, the George Uboh-led Whistleblowers Network rushed the main entrance to the National Assembly in protest against the Ad hoc committee formed by the House to look into the allegedly stolen petroleum that was later sold in China for a profit of $4.8 billion.
The demonstrators, who were led by Peter Umoh, criticised the House for creating the Ad Hoc Committee while the crime, in their opinion, was already being tried in court.
They alleged that the House did not receive any petition from them to warrant such an investigation. and that Hon Gbillah led Ad – Hoc committee did not include them in the list of witnesses invited for a public hearing, which to them, raised suspicion of vested interest in the matter by the House and the committee itself.
They in their own belief, felt that the Ad Hoc Committee should hands off the matter since courts of competent jurisdictions were already hearing cases.
The Chairman of the Ad – hoc committee, Gbillah, in his response noted that the George Uboh-led Whistleblowers Network were nothing but rabble-rousers in the matters at hand.
He dismissed all the allegations made against his committee and the House as spurious and threatened that “legal action would be taken against their sponsors if they don’t desist from their show of shame.”
Gbillah said, “In the first place, information on stolen 48 million barrels of crude oil was not given to me or the House of Representatives by the George Uboh-led Whistleblowers Network but by Jackson Odey in far away the United States of America through a publication in 2020.
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” Two, there is nothing subjudice in the mandates given the Ad – hoc committee by resolution of the House which took effect three clear months before the so-called whistleblowers went to court.
” Three, the scope of investigation given the Ad-hoc committee, transcended the stolen 48 million barrels of crude oil. It extended to general crude oil export from 2014 till date and investigation on whistleblowers’ findings in the oil sector.”
The Rep member added, “The George Uboh-led Whistleblowers Network was totally out of point to have said it didn’t submit the petition to the House on the stolen 48 million barrels of Crude oil because the House did not need such, to start its investigation.
“Finally, members of the George Uboh-led Whistleblowers Network are hiding behind a finger by alleging that they were not invited by the committee as part of witnesses after earlier pleading to be treated as anonymous and after meeting with the committee behind closed doors with a request for compensation which was not granted them.
“The earlier they know that their rabble-rousing cannot stop the committee from forging ahead with mandates given it by the House, the better for them. “
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