The Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), has directed the Minister of Petroleum Resources, President Muhammadu Buhari, to end the ongoing fuel scarcity in the country within two weeks from now.
This came on the heels of disclosure by the Pipeline Products Marketing Company, PPMC, that Nigeria lost a whopping N50 billion in ten months as a result of vandalisation of petroleum pipelines in some parts of the country.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Uche Ekwunife, who gave the directive, yesterday, in Abuja, during the committee’s meeting with top officials of Ministry of Petroleum Resources, insisted that the petroleum minister must not only end the scarcity but ensure that fuel was sold to the public at government’s controlled price of N87.00 per litre.
Senator Ekwunife, representing Anambra South, on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, frowned at the ongoing fuel crisis, saying, Nigerians were suffering untold hardship following the development.
Fuming over what she described as unnecessary fuel crisis, Ekwunife, 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.Nigerians want to see an end to this fuel scarcity”.
Meanwhile, to end the fuel scarcity in the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is engaging the Department of Security Services (DSS) and Economic and the Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to check the hoarding and diversion of petroleum products by some unscrupulous marketers. The NNPC in Abuja yesterday said the engagement of the security agencies was also meant to assist in the monitoring of nationwide fuel truck out to retail outlets. While apologizing to commuters, motorists and the general public for the noticeable hardship faced in accessing petrol across the country, NNPC assured that it was doing everything possible to normalise the fuel supply and distribution situation.
In a related news, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) has expressed dismay over the recurring fuel scarcity in the last few weeks, noting that the development had crippled the economy and made life unbearable for the ordinary Nigerian.
In a statement, yesterday by the Chairman of TMG, Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi, the group said that the handling of the issue by both the President as Minister of Petroleum Resources and his Minister of State, Ibe Kachikwu, who traveled at a time were suffering from fuel scarcity, betray what Nigerians may have bargained for, when they massively voted for change at the March 28, 2015 presidential election.
The TMG chairman noted that the recent shortage of fuel witnessed across the country had cost Nigerians monumental economic losses, as beyond wasting man-hours at filling stations waiting for petrol, the scarcity was breeding inflation and the attendant high fares were impacting on the cost of goods and services. According to him, “For an economy struggling to adapt to the six month- old administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the consequence of this new round of scarcity, is to say the least, most damaging. With the current liquidity squeeze in the system, as well as the meagre N18,000 minimum wage, which can hardly take the average Nigerian worker home, TMG is disturbed that the fuel scarcity would further impoverish Nigerians.’’
He noted that it was disappointing that long after the Buhari administration announced that most of the refineries, which were hitherto comatose, had begun to produce refined products, including petrol, the country still found itself in the acute shortage of the product.
