Diezani Alison- Madueke rent crowd......Let Maduekwe LEAVE not LIVE!

In a desperate bid to steer public sympathy to its
side, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC)yesterday in Abuja rented a crowd of
mostly women to stage a protest in support of the
embattled Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-
Madueke. Ms. Alison-Madueke has been embroiled
in a financial controversy over the N10 billion she
spent on chartered jets.
Two of the protesters confided in a correspondent
of SaharaReporters that their organizers had
promised to give each protester N5000 after the
event.
The protesters, who called themselves “Concerned
Market Women,” gathered in their hundreds at the
main gate of the National Assembly. They chanted
solidarity songs in support of the embattled
minister and held up placards, two of
them reading, “Leave Alison Alone” and “Let
Minister of Petroleum Alone”.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources is accused of
squandering an outrageous sum of N10 billion to
charter jets from three jet charter companies,
including Swiss-based Vistajet.
Members of the House of Representatives
committee investigating the minister’s outlandish
expenditure said they have secured the aircraft
travel logs to kick off the probe. However, the
minister and top management of the NNPC have
so far refused to cooperate with the committee.
Details from the logs revealed the minister’s huge
expenses on her numerous foreign junkets,
including trips to China, South Africa, the United
States and the United Arab Emirates.
Babatunde Adejare, a member of the House of
Representatives from Lagos State, who brought
the issue before the House, had stated that Ms.
Alison-Madueke spent N3.12 billion on the private
jet charters in the last two years alone. The
matter was referred to the House Committee on
Public Accounts for investigation.
The minister of Petroleum Resources is a close ally
of President Goodluck Jonathan. Though a married
woman, she is allegedly romantically involved with
the president. An NNPC source told
SaharaReporters that the minister has put the
corporation under pressure to thwart the
investigations.
Another investigation at the Senate relating to
the theft of $20 billion in sales of crude oil
proceeds has ground to a halt. A senator told our
correspondent that it was an open secret that five
members of the Senate committee received bribes
of millions of dollars to put their probe in the
cooler. The senator added that the bribes were
packaged by Kola Aluko, a controversial
businessman linked to Vistajet.
Meanwhile, a source at the Presidency in Abuja
stated that the President Jonathan was likely to
sacrifice the General Managing Director of the
NNPC if the pressure builds against the Petroleum
Minister. “The 2015 election is around the corner
and the president needs the Petroleum Minister in
order to finance a strong campaign,” said the
source, adding that Mr. Jonathan could not afford
to lose Ms. Alison-Madueke’s financial power at
this critical juncture.
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