The senator representing Bayelsa West, Seriake Dickson, has withdrawn from a sitting of the senate committee on local content.
He stepped aside after “discovering” that the session was an investigative hearing into allegations involving the diversion of $14.8 million by Timipre Sylva, former minister of state for petroleum resources.
On November 10, the EFCC declared Sylva wanted in connection with the allegation.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Dickson explained that he initially attended the meeting under the impression that it would be an interactive session with the executive secretary of the board and his team.
He said he objected to the proceedings upon realising that the committee convened the hearing specifically to review the allegation against Sylva.
The senator stated that he argued for a broader inquiry into the “entirety of the management of the fund from inception”, rather than focusing on one particular transaction.
He described the approach as “too selective”, noting that “it is public knowledge that the EFCC has already taken steps” regarding the matter.
“I recused myself because the person affected is a former governor of my state — my predecessor in office, and I have a policy of not joining to fight or pull down anyone,” he wrote.
“I am not like other politicians from my area or the typical politicians in Nigeria who celebrate the downfall of opponents and people they disagree with.
“The person concerned and I have been on different ends, leading different tendencies in various political battles in my state since 2011 till date.
“While we do not meet or speak or pursue any common political agenda, and we have not been in the same party since 2011, I do not practise politics that involves pulling people down or contributing to their problems.
“I have always limited political contest to campaigns during elections, where I outplan, out-campaign, strategize, and defeat them on the ground and through legal processes, but never by trying to bring anyone down after elections.”
Joel-Onowakpo Thomas, chairman of the panel, said the committee has accepted Dickson’s choice to step aside.
“I want to state here categorically that it is not out of place to hear something that is happening in a board that is being oversighted and one cannot ask for that specific information,” Thomas said.
“There are other issues that we are doing, but this one is on the front burner.”