In response to the persistent demand by PUNCH for the report of the Okigbo Panel, which probed the management of $12billion oil windfall from 1991 Gulf War, the Federal Government has initiated a fresh bid to recover it from a former Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Ibrahim Ida. Idah was the secretary to the panel.
The government gave an indication of its renewed attempt to retrieve the report in a reply to PUNCH letters of October 13 and 27, 2004 to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaette.
In a letter signed by the Permanent Secretary (GSO), Dr. B.K. Kaigama, on behalf of the SGF, and received last Friday, the government said, �I wish to refer to your letter of the above title dated 13th October, 2004 and the reminder dated 27th October, 2004 and to inform you that we have since written to Alhaji Ibrahim Ida to send us a copy of the report.
�We are still awaiting his response. Please, accept the warm regards of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.�
Following a controversy over the management of the windfall, which was earned under former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, there has been pressure on various governments from 1993 to make the report of the panel public.
Although the military administrations of Gen. Sani Abacha and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar did not release the report, the return of democracy in 1999 fuelled the call for its release.
In the last one year, PUNCH has written three times to the SGF, for a copy of the report.
The Federal Government, however, claimed that it was searching for the report and urged any Nigerian or group with useful information to assist it.
In a reminder to the government, signed by the Editor of The PUNCH, Mr. Azubuike Ishiekwene, dated October 27, 2004, he said that the report had been traced to a former Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Ibrahim Ida. He is believed to have both the hard copy and diskette of the report.
The reminder, which was dispatched through courier to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation read, �I wish to remind your office of a pending request for a copy of Pius Okigbo Panel�s report by Punch Newspapers.
�In the last request sent to your office on October 13, 2004, it was clearly indicated that, Punch had traced the report to a former Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Ibrahim Ida who resides in Abuja.�
The letter urged the government to facilitate the release of the report in the public interest.
A Presidency source had last week claimed that the government had more problems on its hands than to worry about the Okigbo report.
The alleged indifference of the government had forced Nigerians who were interested in the report to consider alternative means of obtaining it.
A member of the National Assembly who spoke on condition of anonymity said, �The report could still be obtained if the constitutional process is followed.�
He said that Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution gives the National Assembly such powers to ask for the report in the public interest.
Section 89(1) (c) states: �For the purposes of any investigation under Section 88 of this Constitution and subject to the provision thereof, the Senate or the House of Representatives or a committee appointed in accordance with Section 62 of this Constitution shall have power to summon any person in Nigeria to give evidence at any place or produce any document or other thing in his possession under his control and examine him as a witness and require him to produce any document or other thing in his possession or under his control, subject to all just exceptions.�
The Secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, Chief Maxi Okwu said, �With the Freedom of Information Act now in place, The PUNCH can compel a release of the Okigbo report.�
The CNPP�s scribe suggestion is not, however, feasible because the National Assembly has not passed the Freedom of Information Bill.
