Minister Blames Fuel Scarcity On Subsidy Claims’ Payment

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke has
attributed the shortages being experienced in some parts of the country to the
stringent measures taken by the Federal Ministry of Finance in the payment of
subsidy claims.

Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, recently, Alison-Madueke
stated that only genuine subsidy claims by marketers would be entertained in
line with the transparency and accountability policy of the government.

Her words: “Initially, the queues came out of the whole
fuel subsidy issue and the fact of course that verification of certain amounts
and certain marketers’ claims were being made very stringently and this had to
be done. We cannot eat our cakes and have it.

We cannot keep calling out for transparency and
accountability and pointing at corruption if we are not prepared to bear some
of the hardship that will obviously come when you are trying to clean up the
sector.

“The verifications were being done; payments could not
be made by finance and I think they have said that severally, but the
verifications have been done; payments are now being made and like I said, the
queues have actually begun to come down”.

She also assured Nigerians that this year’s Christmas
and new year festivities would be free from fuel queues as the Ministry of
Petroleum Resources and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would
ensure availability of petroleum products.

She disclosed that the Ministry had already released
petroleum products from its strategic reserve to reduce shortages.

Hear her: “We too, on NNPC side we have pushed out a lot
of our strategic reserve in a bid to ensure that people are not overtly put out
in terms of fuel scarcity. And if not for this recent union issue, I think it
would have been completely alleviated but I am sure that over the next few days
it will die down completely. We are doing everything we can on ground to ensure
that this Christmas will be like last Christmas, as well.

The Petroleum Minister further reassured that the NNPC
would continue to ensure a level playing ground for all interested marketers
and operators in the oil and gas sector.