Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has called out the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, and Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, to urgently honour the summons of an Ad-hoc committee of the House.
They were part of stakeholders invited by the committee which was set up under the leadership of Abdulkadir Abdullahi, to investigate and ascertain Nigeria’s actual daily consumption rate of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol, but all failed to make presence when the investigative hearing began on Tuesday.
The Speaker, who was represented by Deputy Majority Leader, Peter Akpatason, recalled that the House further mandated the panel to go beyond the NNPC records by liaising with industry experts, transport workers and other stakeholders to determine an independent result, to guide the House in its decision.
“The attention of the House was reportedly drawn to the lingering incidences of fuel scarcity causing significant loss of manhour and untold hardship suffered by Nigerians; controversies and concerns generated over the huge sums of money being paid as oil subsidies and the inaccuracy of data required for effective planning, supply and distribution of the premium motor spirit (PMS).
“Only last week, the news was awash with the trading of blames between the NMDPRA and IPMAN over bridging the gap as a result of the rising cost of IPMAN’s operations, reportedly to the tune of over N70 billion in the interim, to address the lingering fuel scarcity. The National Assembly in the repeal and re-enactment of the Year 2022 Appropriation Act has projected the cost of subsidy for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to be over N4 trillion.
“In view of the above, the House of Representatives constituted and mandated the Ad-hoc Committee on the volume of fuel consumed daily in the country, to engage the key operators in the sector, so as to leverage on your expertise and experience in the industry and come up with a solution or template required for effective planning, supply and distribution of the premium motor spirit (PMS) in Nigeria.
“Now you have been given the opportunity to come here and show us what you know, bring out facts that will either confirm or controvert the stories that are out there. So that at the end of the day we are able to act on facts. But here we are”, he stated, describing the absence as an attempt at frustrating the investigation.
Earlier, Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Abdullahi expressed concern over re-occurrence of incidences of fuel scarcity; controversies and concerns generated over the huge sums of money being paid as oil subsidies, and the inaccuracy of data required for effective planning, supply and distribution of the premium motor spirit (PMS), urging stakeholders to cooperate with the panel for the common good of Nigerians.