The Senate on Thursday served President Muhammadu Buhari a two-week ultimatum to address the lingering problem of fuel scarcity across Nigeria.
Buhari is the Minister of Petroleum, but the Senate served him the notice through officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources at a meeting with the Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) in Abuja.
The Senate had earlier in the week raised issue on the scarcity of petroleum products across Nigeria which it reasoned has been causing damages to the national economy,
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Uche Lilian Ekwunife (PDP Anambra Central) issued the ultimatum during a meeting of members of the Committee with representatives of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. The Managing Director, Pipeline Products Marketing Company, PPMC, Mrs. Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, had told the Senate Committee that Nigeria lost 531 million litres of fuel worth N50 billion in the last 10 months to petroleum pipelines vandalisation in some parts of the country.
However, Ekwunife said the Petroleum Minister with the cooperation of the permanent secretary and heads of agencies under the ministry must ensure an end to the scarcity within the stipulated time. She also said it was mandatory for the officials of the ministry to ensure that petroleum products are sold to the public at the government’s controlled price of N87 per litre.
She said: “We are mandating the Minister of Petroleum Resources, the Permanent Secretary and heads of agencies to stop this fuel scarcity in two weeks. “We are giving a target now, we don’t want to know how you would achieve it, but it must be stopped. This is a critical period, in the next few weeks, there will be Christmas, Nigerians want to see an end to this scarcity and be able to buy petrol at N87 per litre”, she said.
The PPMC boss disclosed that apart from the huge losses Nigeria had made to pipeline vandalisation, the issue of sharp practices at the fuel depots, including illegal charges and diversion of the products by marketers have been the major causes of scarcity of products in Nigeria. She said the practices amounted to economic sabotage, adding that the PPMC had gone into collaboration with the Department of State Security, DSS, and the Police to tackle the hoarding and diversion of petroleum products in the country.
However, the Group Executive Director, Commercial and Investment of NNPC, Dr. Victor Babatunde Adeniran, said payment of fuel subsidy as at when due would help oil marketers to play their roles effectively. He also advocated the repair of petroleum pipelines vandalised by criminals across the country as part of measures for ending the problems of fuel supply across the country. Speaking in the same vein, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Jamila Soara, stressed the need for strategic back-ups for fuel reserves in various locations across the country
