Members of the George Uboh-led Whistleblowers Network have been threatened with legal action by the Mark Gbillah-led Ad Hoc Committee of the House of Representatives, which is looking into the theft of 48 million barrels of crude oil.
According to The PUNCH, 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, criticized the House for creating the Ad Hoc Committee while the crime, in their opinion, was already being tried in court.
They said that no petition from them to the House was presented to support such an investigation. additionally, they felt that the House and the Ad-Hoc committee, which was led by Hon. Gbillah, had a personal interest in the outcome of the case given that their names were not on the list of witnesses invited to a public hearing.
They believed that the Ad Hoc Committee should abstain from the topic because courts of competent jurisdiction were already hearing cases.
In his reaction, the Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee, Gbillah, stated that the George Uboh-led Whistleblowers Network were nothing more than rabble-rousers in the case at hand.
He refuted all claims leveled against his committee and the House, threatening that “legal action would be taken against their sponsors if they do not 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.
” 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. “
