Oil and gas industry stakeholders are mounting pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to reopen all cases relating to fuel subsidy fraud and ensure that all those indicted are prosecuted.

This becomes necessary as most of the top officials and “friends of government” indicted by the Aig-Imoukhuede probe panel were released by security officials.

The stakeholders now want all those indicted to face the wrath of the law under the present government as a way of proving that the new government has zero tolerance for corruption.

It is alleged that, for years, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) granted fuel imports to companies that had no business whatsoever with the sector.

"These companies only sold the petrol to sister countries and collected billions of dollars as fuel subsidy from government whereas they did not sell the product in Nigeria.

“That was why the fuel import contract was shrouded in secrecy by the agency," the stakeholders say.

Some of the indicted marketers were alleged to have doctored their documents before presenting them to the various probe panels and the police. These wrongdoings must be put right to move the sector forward and save the Nigerian economy from total collapse, according to the stakeholders. “This will serve as deterrent to others,” they say.

“The oil-subsidy regime must end, and all stolen Nigerian monies refunded.”

Former president Jonathan, realising the huge amount lost to round-tripping and other shady deals in the industry, set up the 15-man presidential panel, headed by the  then managing director of Access Bank, Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, to probe the fuel subsidy administration.

The panel found about 25 oil marketing firms wanting. Some of the firms and their chief executives were cleared, but a few others recommended for further investigations were found culpable.

“Due to weak regulatory regimes, the downstream sector became an all-comers’ affair,” says an oil industry analyst.

Oil analysts had accused the past government of secretly awarding fuel import permits to some of the indicted oil marketing companies.

They also criticised the immediate past administration for dealing with oil marketers and firms indicted by the police and the various panels set up by the Federal Ministry of Finance in 2012 to probe fuel subsidy infractions.

A national newspaper had gathered that the Jonathan government released some of the indicted persons and halted further investigations. Some of them had earlier accepted to play ball and help the then government achieve its political desires.

Meanwhile, the new administration is reportedly set to revoke all oil-bloc licences granted without following due process.

The government, however, may yield to internal as well as external pressure and start its cleansing process from the oil sector by conducting an open, competitive bid for the award of oil-blocs.

Not left out are the blocs awarded to local firms owned by government allies and friends of top government executives.

The stakeholders put the blame on "all those who failed to do what they ought to have done." They want them punished, particularly the Department of Petroleum Resources, for failing in their responsibilities both in the upstream and the downstream sectors of the industry.