Honourable, Dr. Ali Ahmad is a member of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Probe and chairman, House Committee on Justice. In this interview with newsmen in Ilorin, Kwara State made startling revelations about the discovery of the probe panel. Among other things, Ahmad disclosed that some serving governors and ministers benefited from the subsidy regime. Regional Editor North-Central, ABDULLAHI OLESIN was there for LEADERSHIP SUNDAY. Excerpts:

There are allegations that your committee doctored the oil probe report to shield some NASS members?
This is the first time I'm hearing that. Out of those indicted in the report are some serving governors, former governors, past and serving ministers. We know all their companies. You can investigate that and say it. I am not aware of any Senator. We are not looking at people. Nigeria is greater than anybody.

We said it from the beginning. Everything is forsaken. You know Farouk Lawan had governorship ambition. He said it that if the report is what would debar him from the governorship ambition, so be it.

He meant to deliver for Nigerians. He said PDP might not give him the ticket. If somebody can go all that out, why should we protect another Senator or anyone. This is a fact. He still wants to be a governor under PDP platform. Farouk has been in the House for 14 years.

And you know Kano is a fair weather state. PDP today, ANPP tomorrow. He has never left PDP and has won in his constituency whether PDP as governor or ANPP because his people are loyal to him. But he's saying that if PDP will not give him the ticket for his governorship ambition because of the report because of the influences we are getting, so be it.

PDP has called some caucus members. What we are saying is that PDP is a platform; coming to government is a platform.

What we are doing is working for the people. We shouldn't trivialise this report because people had sacrificed a lot. It behoves on government and people to support the report. If you say today, Farouk has compromised, fine, pursue him, but the report is here. That should be the attitude.

What were the distractions?
A lot of distractions; you know I won't mention names until after the report is adopted. But for now, it's still a mere document. The oil business is a secret society thing. If you don't belong, you don't belong. Oil industry is so small, but so powerful. Just like a secret society. I'm surprised I haven't started seeing advertorials here and there.

They have lots of money and have nothing to do with it. I learnt some of them had started mobilizing against Tambuwal to impeach him because they've seen he didn't disturb us.

And Tambuwal said the report will be debated live so that there is nothing hidden. Remove Tambuwal or not, the House remains the same and Nigeria still remains the same. Even Tambuwal is unremovable. He's not from outside. He's from inside.

What is the involvement of PDP as a party in the report?
I don't see PDP meddling with the report. PDP is a strong party, forthright. They do the right thing. The new national chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, is somebody we have known for a long time. He's an astute businessman. He never for once interfered. If he would, he would have interfered before now. PDP that we know is not PDP of the past.

It will never interfere. In fact, the PDP will in the next few days come out to support whatever the people of the House is doing. People should fear other parties really. They should fear those minority parties trying to confuse Nigerians, but certainly not PDP.

For emphasis sake, do you mean companies belonging to serving governors and ministers were involved in the scam?
Of course, yes. You go and do your research.

May 29 is another Democracy Day, what's your assessment?
That's why it is so disheartening when you see people talking about 2015 at this period. Nigerians are not living for politics. Politics is not what we are here for. We are here for governance. Nigerians have expectations from whoever is in power in the state or federal. We want education, good road, power. These are the things we should be talking about.

Where are we on the milestone? Do we have milestone? We should be wiser to know that politicking is becoming a distraction. This is what you see when people started losing hope. The rate of suicide in Nigeria now is higher than ever before. Why? People should stop playing with people's lives.

Do you see any possible hindrance aside from government on the implementation of your committee's report?
Contrary to that, comments and feelers we are having from the executive is that they are enthusiastic before the report was laid. I don't know now, but I don't think anything should have changed. What happened in January would have consumed this nation. Some people were killed in the process. We should address that and address it finally.

Whatever action anyone takes should have repercussion. If government fails to implement it, there would be repercussion. Impunity in Nigeria must stop. Anyone that has done something in the past, we will not only look forward, we'll look backward to redress the wrong. The era of civil servants doing something bad and you sack them is gone.

They should pay and be answerable. Once that's done, they will sit up. This thing won't have happened if the civil servants, the bureaucrats, were not compromised. Even the Federal Ministry of Finance was affected, when the minister said he didn't trust his people. So, they brought Akintola Williams and Adekanola. Nigerians had suffered.

What are there for Nigerians to benefit in the report?
If implemented, one thing we will achieve is the finality on the price of petroleum products. Nigerians should have rest of mind for once in that petroleum products should not be N60 today, N80 tomorrow by one government and another government comes with N100 or N140. We could achieve standard price on petroleum products and that's what this report is all about. Everyone should read the report.

Government does not need to spend the N888 billion for subsidy in the budget for this year. And Lamido Sanusi (CBN governor) just said that even the N888 billion will not be sufficient. They have started again. Nigerians should wake up to shine their eyes. We are just in April; Lamido is raising alarm that the N888 billion will not be sufficient.

So, we might see another one trillion or two trillion before the end of 2012. And what this report is saying is that even with this N888 billion, we don't need to spend one kobo from it.

In fact, if any government is not ready to work for Nigerian people, they should be voted out. I want a counter argument that N445 billion can't satisfy oil subsidy in this country. If it can, why spending N888 billion or even beyond. It's unbelievable. This is an opportunity for government to earn people's trust and say, for once, let's do it right.

Otherwise, we are back to square one. The common man should expose corruption. It's for all of us to protect the common man. You know, they lied that it is international fuel price and foreign exchange that is contributing to fuel slide. We have investigated it. It's all lies. Imagine, from N245 billion to two trillion.

With high level corruption in Nigeria, would you advocate death penalty for corrupt office holders?
I will not as a lawyer advocate for death penalty because you don't use death penalty as a weapon to address all crime. China has done it, but if we do it, we will do it wrongly in Nigeria because we will end up executing wrong people because judiciary itself is not clean. So, I think the best thing is to clean up the system and have zero-tolerance for corruption.

We should come out as a nation and say once you are accused of corruption, governments should stop dealing with you and you should step out of office and be treated as an outcast until the offence is thrashed out. And corruption cases should not last more than six months. We should treat corruption as an enigma.

As a minister accused of corruption should just step aside first. As a businessman, your bank account is frozen and you don't do business with government again. As an accounting firm, you are blacklisted until you prove yourself. People should collectively stand up and fight corruption and the offenders.

What is your take on the report suggesting merger of ICPC, EFCC others with police?
I haven't seen the report. Does it have any alternative for EFCC, ICPC? Oh, police that's roundly rejected. You don't do things on paper. Everyone knows police can't handle EFCC matters. Can police handle a multi billion naira case or a trillion naira case? They don't have the capacity or the mind, training. Corruption is a specialized area.

Are you saying we should sacrifice anti-corruption fight on the alter of restructuring? That's nonsense. I don't think anyone in legislature should support that. We know there are overlaps in other areas. If it happens in the UK, US, we are not there yet. Corruption is the big thing here and we have to address it.