NNPC, Other Regulatory Agencies Get One-Week Ultimatum To Address Fuel Scarcity

The House of Representatives has given the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and other regulatory agencies a one-week ultimatum to  address fuel scarcity in the country.

Team@orientactualmags.com learned this was sequel to the adoption of  the motion of urgent public importance moved  by  Rep Sa’idu Musa Abdullahi during  the plenary session  on Tuesday.

Abdulahi lamented that  the lingering  fuel scarcity had gotten Nigerians  subjected to untold hardships and had their  economic activities affected while making things more difficult for the people.

He noted that  the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA)  had however earlier given some reasons to justify the fuel scarcity.

‘Firstly, when the scarcity reared its ugly head at the peak of the raining season in October this year, NMDPRA said the fuel scarcity in Abuja and other northern states was caused by floodwaters that  had submerged the greater part of Lokoja including the highway leading to Abuja, a development that had  grounded all vehicular movements along that route.

Soon after floods/rains receded in Lokoja and the petrol scarcity continued, the President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said the situation persisted because of the supply gap created by the blockade in Lokoja. The IPMAN affirmed that there was enough products at the depots and that the lingering scarcity was only caused by the break in supply of the products.

When the scarcity continued and all the excuses advanced by the stakeholders watered down, the National Operations Controller of IPMAN advanced another reason and argued that the scarcity is because of an unsteady supply of the products.

Intelligence reports on current fuel scarcity gathered by our security agencies indicated that there is a deliberate plan by some oil marketers to derail the effort of the government in the distribution of fuel in the country by hoarding the petroleum products, thereby creating artificial scarcity all over the country’ he said.

Abdulahi  added that most of the filling stations had continued to  make the  petroleum product available to  petrol buyers  at over N300 per litre.

‘It is observed with dismay that those who are gaining from this artificial fuel scarcity appear to be smiling home as a result of this ugly development and this has the potency to provoke innocent Nigerians against the government.

The inability of the regulators of the petroleum sector to end this artificial scarcity of petroleum products forced the Department of State Security Services to issue an ultimatum to the NNPC, and oil marketers to end the artificial scarcity within 48-hours’ he added.

The House of Representatives later  asked the NNPC Ltd to end the fuel scarcity within the next one week in order to save Nigerians from the hardships they had been made to face.

The house also  called on the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission to collaborate with the Nigeria Police Force and the DSS to ensure that fuel is sold at the regulated price and at all retail outlets while  mandating  its Committees on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) and Legislative Compliance to ensure compliance-Team@orientactualmags.com
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