The agency at the heart of this particular scandal is the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, or PPPRA, which is in charge of government subsidies to keep gasoline prices low. The agency issues letters of authorisation that allow oil marketers to import gasoline and other subsidised products. The agency, like the Petroleum Development Trust Fund, has customarily operated under the supervision of the presidency. But upon being named minister a year ago, Mrs. Allison-Madueke fought to consolidate the agencies under her direct control, including throwing a tantrum during a cabinet meeting at which the president finally gave her what she desired, according to those at the meeting. After taking control of the PPRA, the minister appointed a trusted pal, an NNPC official close to retirement, Godi Ebugi, as the agency’s executive secretary. It is believed that Mr. Ebugi is at the agency to do the minister’s bidding
Agent Go-Between
The shakedown of the oil marketers, which amounts to about N2.2 billion, is payable only in cash to a shady character traced by our reporters to a small office in Abuja called Mr. Rufai, who is serving as the bag man for Mrs. Allison-Madueke’s most trusted officials. It is Mr. Rufai who directed our reporters, posing as representatives of an oil marketer, to his office and instructed them on how to make the payment. Our reporters had called the same mobile telephone number given to the oil marketers.
Mr. Rufai, a tall, bespectacled, light-skinned man, operates out of a small office at 17 Constantine Street in Wuse Zone 4, Abuja. His job is to receive cash from the oil companies for onward disbursement to PPPRA officials who, in turn, are expected to pass it to Mrs. Allison-Maduekwe, according to numerous sources. Mr. Rufai directs all ‘clients’ to his office, located on the first floor of a rambling two-storey building amongst several other small bureau de change establishments, and assists them in calculating the total value of money to be paid in bribes