The leadership of the Arewa Consultative Youth Forum, (ACYM) has insisted that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), must be probed over alleged non-remittance of revenue to the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN), as stipulated by law.
Recall that in an issued statement in Abuja at the weekend, the President of the Forum, Kabiru Yusuf, distanced the Forum from a statement purportedly issued by him to the contrary. He said the statement claimed that himself and his office dissociated the Forum from the Tuesday statement by the Arewa Consultative Youths Movement, (ACYM), asking President Buhari to as a matter of urgent national importance direct a full-scale investigation into the alleged non-remittance.
According to him, the said statement which was signed by a rented impostor, Kabiru Yusuf, was in line with the desperate but failed move by the NNPC and its cohorts to cover the monumental fraud and the exposed non-remittance of oil earnings by the oil firm to the CBN.
“We are aware of desperate attempts by certain persons working for NNPC to force the fake statement on our highly respected media to see same as though it emanated from the authentic president of ACYM, Kabiru Yusuf. For the avoidance of doubt, the ACYM still stands by its Tuesday statement signed by Kabiru Yusuf, asking President Buhari to probe the subject matter.
“ACYM, as a non-partisan association, can never succumb to such cheap blackmail and we advise the NNPC to face the issue rather than making these desperate, but failed, attempts to divert public attention on this economic sabotage.
“As a group, we believe that the shortfall was capable of plunging the country into a serious crisis if unchecked. It was therefore important for the President to probe the matter with a view to ascertaining the causes and ensuring that things change for the better”, he stated. Our earlier statement partly read: “Arewa youths are indeed concerned about the widely reported shortfall in the remittances of the NNPC into the CBN coffers. It is our humble opinion that all those involved should be probed in order to ascertain if any underhand dealings led to the situation.
“The President should not waste time in directing relevant persons or government agencies to probe the NNPC on this matter. There must be reasons why remittances can drop so sharply and Nigerians would like to know these reasons”.
“We urge the President not to delay in commissioning this very important probe”, he added.
