Senate blames NNPC, marketers for fuel scarcity

The Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream has
blamed the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
and marketers for the ongoing short supply of the petroleum
products in the country.

The Committee Chairman, Kabiru Marafa, stated this on
Monday in Gusau while inspecting the fuel situation in the
country.
Mr. 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
Bukola Saraki.
“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 approximate measures to address
the scarcity.
“We visited NNPC zonal depot Gusau to find out the quantity
of fuel supply 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 question the NNPC over this issue because the Group
Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, said they had
doubled the quantity of daily supply 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,” he
said.
Mr. Marafa commended the state Department of Petroleum
Resources (DPR) field office for ensuring compliance at the
filling stations.
The senator urged the DPR to sanction filling stations involved
in hoarding and selling above approved government price of
N145 per litre.
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