As
the country continues to reel from the fuel scarcity which ruined the
holiday plans of many Nigerians, senators have laid the blame squarely
at the feet of fuel marketers and the NNPC. The chairman of the Senate
Committee on Petroleum Downstream made this known in Gusau, Zamfara
state while on oversight assignment in the state.
He said:
“I
have directed all members of this committee to go back to their
constituencies to investigate the problem at the grassroots so that we
take appropriate measures to address the scarcity. We visited NNPC zonal
depot in Gusau to find out the quantity of fuel supplied to the depot
and we noticed short supply of the commodity. We are going to present
our findings to the Senate. It is very disturbing to see the suffering
faced by people due to fuel scarcity in the country.
“We
questioned the NNPC over this issue because the Group Managing Director
of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, said they had doubled the quantity of daily
supplies of the product, but it is not available to the public. Another
unfortunate thing is the attitude of our filling stations’ owners, who
sell this commodity to the public. They are involved in one or two
malpractices. In fact, out of the filling stations we visited, only two
have complied with the government directives in this regard.”
Also
speaking on the issue, Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts,
Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said the minister of petroleum, President
Muhammadu Buhari and his deputy, Ibe Kachikwu should be help responsible
for the scarcity. 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.”