Fuel Scarcity: Senate Blames Buhari, Kachikwu …Pump Price Remains At N300 Per Litre …Marketers Insist On Increase In Pump Price

Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, has called on Nigerians to hold the duo of President Muhammadu Buhari and Dr Ibe Kachikwu responsible for the fuel scarcity in the country, saying the buck stops at their tables as the Minister and Minister of State in the Ministry of Petroleum Affairs.
Muhammadu Buhari prepares to meet stakeholders today in Aso Rock, to find lasting solution to the nation’s prolonged fuel crisis, the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream has blamed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and marketers for the development. Committee Chairman Senator Kabiru Marafa stated this, yesterday in Gusau, Zamfara State, during an oversight assignment in the state. Marafa, who was accompanied by a member of the committee, Abdullahi Danbaba, said the inspection was part of the assignment given to the committee by Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki.
Urhoghide, who spoke with newsmen in Benin City, Edo State, while responding to the current fuel scarcity in the country, also blamed those in authority for their lack of knowledge of the quantity of crude oil that is produced daily, the quantity that is refined daily by country’s refineries, what comes into the country by way of importation and what is consumed by Nigerians on daily basis.
He said: “Let me ask you, all these people working in NNPC, don’t they report to the President? The Minister of Petroleum is the President and the Minister of State is another person. So, for the ministry, they have two ministers.
So, if things are not working in the Ministry, hold the President and the Minister of State responsible. “Are we afraid to say this
It depends on Nigerians, if they are not doing well, vote them out, we should continue to do this until we get to near perfection. “Fuel scarcity has become perennial in our country, it is also an annual ritual in our lives. So, we are living with it.
Why will I become comfortable when Nigerians are suffering? NNPC and IPMAN are two birds that flock together; how do you want me to know who is saying the truth? “There was a problem between the Minister of State for Petroleum Affairs and the GMD of NNPC sometimes ago and they made claims and counter-claims and they went to the Villa and were settled.
Today, do you know what transpired between them? “So, if IPMAN is claiming that they have paid money to the NNPC and their tanks are empty and the NNPC is saying that they are owing them and you are hearing this back and front accusations, which one do you want me to believe? The story tells me that the system is not working.
“Leadership is still as faulty as it has always been in this country, so nobody should say that because of Mr A or Mr B, this country is in a better shape.
Did the country not experience fuel scarcity during Obasanjo’s time? Did the country not experience fuel scarcity in former President Umaru Yar’ Adua’s time? But it is on record that it was only Yar’ Adua, who for the period he was the President, did not increase the price of fuel; rather, there was a decrease in fuel pump price.
Meanwhile, fuel marketers yesterday insisted that they could no longer import Premium Motor Spirit at a control price of N145 per litre.
They also said they were not responsible for the recent scarcity of the product witnessed across the country.
The Chairman of Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Dapo Abiodun, disclosed these to State House correspondents at the end of a meeting stakeholders in the oil industry had with Federal Government’s delegation led by the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari.
The meeting which was held at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja was also attended by the heads of the Department of State Services and the Nigeria Immigration Service as well as representatives of other paramilitary services.