Worried by the unending nationwide
fuel scarcity, the Senate, yesterday, summoned the Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, to appear before it today.
The development came just as
senators of the Peoples Democratic Democratic Party, PDP, charged President
Muhammadu Buhari to immediately take charge of the country and live up to his
campaign promises, which they noted, centred on positive change for the
country.
Kachikwu was summoned by the Senate
Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), after the committee carried out
on-the-spot assessment of the crisis in major filling stations within Abuja
metropolis.
Members of the committee were angry
that many filling stations were not selling the product due to alleged lack of
supply from the NNPC depot at Suleja, leading to long queues of motorists
waiting under the scorching sun for the non-available product.
The committee’s Acting Chairman,
Jibrin Barau, alongside two other members, said the Petroleum Minister must definitely
appear before them today to explain what led to the situation and possibly
proffer a lasting solution.
Barau, who addressed journalists
after the assessment of some filling stations, described the situation as not
only pathetic but also bad, stressing that it must be urgently arrested.
He said the development made the
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to call on the committee to swing into
action as a way of bailing Nigerians out of the crisis.
He said: “This situation is very bad
and unacceptable, hence the need for the minister to appear before us tomorrow
(today), and unveil his plan of a way out to us. Even if he doesn’t have any
plan yet out of the lingering problem, the Senate President and the entire
members of the committee are more than ready to rub minds with him for that
needed purpose.”
“Live up to promise of change,” PDP
senators tell Buhari
On his part, Senate Minority Whip
and a member of the committee, Senator Philip Aduda, who said he was speaking
for PDP senators, called on the Federal Government to arrest the situation fast
by making fuel available to Nigerians, adding that what Nigerians needed was
fuel and not blame game.
He tasked President Muhammadu Buhari
to live up to his campaign promises of delivering change to Nigerians.
According to him, what Nigerians are passing through at the moment is
unacceptable.
His words: “The government should
look for petrol and ensure that it is given to the people. It is unacceptable,
we are Nigerians and it will be bad for us to continue remaining on queues. If
the APC leaders like, let them blame themselves, that’s their problem but the
most important thing is for us to have fuel in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“That is what we are looking for and
that is what we want. We want to see all these queues disappear.’’
Meanwhile, petrol marketers at
various stations visited lamented that lack of supply and in adequate supply of
petroleum products from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in
recent time , resulted in product scarcity being witnessed across the country.
Manager of Oando Filling station,
Zone 4, who identified himself as Isa Friday, disclosed that it had been long
the station got supply from NNPC depot at Suleja.
Also, the manager of Forte Oil ,
opposite Transcorp Hilton in Maitama District, said only three fuel tankers
were being supplied daily now, against the previous five or six. NNPC calls for
calm
Meanwhile, the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said yesterday it empathized with the difficulties
Nigerians were going through due to the current fuel situation and assured that
it and the government were not taking their patience for granted.
According to the Group General
Manager, Public Affairs, Garba Deen Mohammed, Nigerians should continue to be
patient because difficulties being experienced as a result of the situation
will soon be alleviated.
He said: “We would like to assure
all Nigerians that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources/Group Managing
Director of NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, and everybody else associated with this
situation are working round the clock to ensure relief is brought to Nigerians.
“Our immediate concern is to make
petrol available through the interventions and processes put in place so that
the queues will disappear within the next one to two weeks. We have enough
products lined up to ensure that the supply gap which created the problem is
bridged.
“In order to ensure effective
distribution, we are working with Independent Petroleum Marketers Association
of Nigeria (IPMAN), oil majors and over 1,000 NNPC staff nationwide to ensure
we overcome the obstacles in the distribution of the products.
“While not resorting to excuses, we
would like to re-emphasize that the present management of NNPC and, indeed, the
government inherited huge and complicated problems with respect to importation,
distribution and pricing of petroleum products.
“Nigerians would recall that
N522,258,934,505 meant for payment of fuel subsidy, covering the last quarter
of 2014 (October to December) and the entire 2015 was approved by the Senate in
December 2015 in order to pay for subsidy arrears inherited by this government.
“For long term solutions, the NNPC
and the government are working to put in place machineries to ensure that our
refineries are fixed and working optimally, while the pipelines which have been
under attack for some time now are repaired.
“The Direct Sale Direct Purchase
(DSDP) arrangement for crude would commence in the first week of April and all
these, coupled with the fact that the President has given his support to
increase the crude supply to NNPC to ensure local sufficiency of products, will
go a long way to solve the problems in the short and long term.”
Source: Vanguard News
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