The Senate on Tuesday directed its Committee on Appropriation to work on the N465bn supplementary appropriation bill and submit report for deliberation and passage next week Tuesday.
The upper chamber, also at plenary, lamented the persistent hardship being experienced by Nigerians due to the scarcity of petrol and directed its Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) to examine issues hampering efforts put in place to resolve the problems.
But the senators rejected an attempt to make the red chamber, approved a motion that would make it invite President Muhammadu Buhari to address the Senate in his capacity as the Petroleum minister over the lingering fuel crisis.
Some senators from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party had argued that the Senate should invite the substantive petroleum minister to explain the steps being taken to address the key issues in the petroleum sector.
The move was successfully overruled by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who cautioned his colleagues against introducing partisan politics into national issues.
Addressing journalists after plenary, however, the Senate spokesperson, Abdullahi Sabi, explained that the Senate could not invite Buhari to address it on the fuel crisis because he was merely overseeing the ministry and not the substantive minister.
Sabi said, “The fact that Mr. President chose to oversee the petroleum ministry does not make him cede his authority of being the Commander-in-Chief. If we need any explanation from a minister and in this case petroleum, the Minister of State (Petroleum), is the person that will definitely come forward to make this explanation.”
He also explained that the decision to pass the supplementary budget was to facilitate speedy payment of the outstanding subsidy claims of N413.3bn to marketers.
However, during the debate on the appropriation bill earlier at plenary, the senators agreed that the bill should be speedily processed to complement the efforts of the executive arm of government in resolving the fuel crisis.
