Subsidy: Yuguda Seeking Government’s Favour For Waiting 15 Years Before Scam Claim—Group

<h4><b>Subsidy&colon; Yuguda Seeking Government&&num;8217&semi;s Favour For Waiting 15 Years Before Scam Claim<&sol;b><&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that a foremost civil society organisation&comma; Peoples Alliance for Transparency and Accountability &lpar;PATA&rpar; has berated Isa Yuguda&comma; a former governor of Bauchi State&comma; Isa Yuguda over his claims on the now halted fuel subsidy scheme by the federal government&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Yuguda who is also Nigeria’s former minister of state for Transport&comma; in a recent interview with a national television station had alleged that up till the time of its removal&comma; the fuel subsidy was a scam run by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited &lpar;NNPCL&rpar; in conjunction with marketers and other stakeholders in the oil sector&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But PATA&comma; in a statement co-signed by its national coordinator&comma; Aliyu Pai and national secretary&comma; Udeme Akpan&comma; on Wednesday&comma; said Yuguda and his cohorts should be ignored as they were opportunists and hypocrites seeking attention&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The group noted that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;it was a shame that Mr&period; Yuguda who claimed to have served as chairman of a sub-committee between 2008 and 2009 under the economic meltdown period and chaired the committee on subsidy failed to alert the nation on the brazen allegation then&comma; but waited till 15 years after&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the group &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;ordinarily&comma; the interview would have been ignored&comma; but due to the sensitivity of the issue and in particular owing to the long overdue recent removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If the allegation is anything but true&comma; we would have called on Nigerians to throw rocks at him as one of those who aided the pillaging of our common patrimony and now wants to be seen as a hero when he is nothing near it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It is curious to us that he waited for over 15 years before having a brain reset to make his outlandish claim&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>PATA further said that the NNPC of 2008 is not that of 2023 as the company has witnessed massive transformation all around&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The oil giant has moved to a profit-making corporation owing to its culture of accountability&comma; transparency and innovation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Today&comma; the NNPC has become a world-class institution capable of competing with the best and brightest in the global energy industry&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It will be pertinent for us to advise President Tinubu to be wary of characters like Yuguda whose political party is majorly responsible for the malfeasance he is tackling today&comma;” the statement added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;