Falana berates Kachikwu, Baru over fuel scarcity

 

• NNPC promises end to scarcity by weekend

Human rights activist and lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN) has accused Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Maikanti Baru, of allegedly deceiving Nigerians that there was enough fuel to cater for all.

He also called on the Federal Government to direct the police to monitor the supply of petroleum products and ensure that all saboteurs are arrested and prosecuted.

In a statement, Falana said: “Since the assurance was given over three weeks ago, the fuel crisis has been compounded without any solution in sight. In view of the shortage of petrol throughout the country it is indubitably clear that Messrs Kachikwu and Baru deliberately set out to deceive the Nigerian people when they gave the misleading impression that there was enough fuel to cater for all consumers.

“Up till now, both highly placed officials have not tendered a public apology for engaging in public deceit. Neither has the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources, President Muhammadu Buhari explained the cause of the ongoing fuel crisis which has subjected the Nigerian people to untold misery and agony.

“Although the federal government has continued to assure the nation that there is no plan to increase the price of petrol, the independent marketers have said that they can no longer import refined fuel and sell at N145 per litre.”

“Since the federal government claims that there is enough fuel to cater for all consumers the police should be mobilized to monitor the supply of the product throughout the country and ensure that all saboteurs are arrested and prosecuted forthwith.” He said.

Meanwhile, NNPC has assured Nigerians that the issues of long fuel queues and petrol scarcity across the country will disappear by the weekend.

Baru, gave the assurance on Wednesday while addressing reporters in Abuja.

According to him, NNPC is winning the war and putting in place adequate measures to ensure the product is easily accessible to the people in all parts of the country.

“I promise by weekend, most of the abrasions we’ve been noticing will disappear. You could see that we are winning the war,” Baru said.

“The (fuel) queues have significantly subsided in Abuja; In Lagos, they’ve almost become none existent and, of course, we are pushing it to the other cities as well as to the hinterlands.”

The NNPC boss addressed in the outskirts of Abuja, where he had gone to shut down another illegal petrol station.

He also accused some petroleum marketers of diverting trucks conveying products meant for the Federal Capital Territory to some other parts of the country.

Baru, however, said trucks leaving depots are being monitored, just as more 110 trucks have been dispatched to the nation’s capital and its environs.

He said: “Outside Abuja, we have gotten a lot of improvements. Also in terms of distribution, we are monitoring every dispatch from the depots and also from Suleja to the various centres.

“Today alone as of noon, we have gotten over 110 trucks that have been dispatched to Abuja and environs.”

The assurance comes one day after the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) said were no products in their tanks, although they could not confirm NNPC’s claims of having sufficient product stock.

DAPPMA Executive Secretary, Mr Olufemi Adewole, had said in a statement on Tuesday blamed the fuel crisis on the inability of the Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) partners of the Corporation to deliver on their business obligations.

In a swift reaction, NNPC said the claims were “unfounded and self-indicting”, accusing DAPPMA members of patronising the same DSDP international counterparts.

In a statement issued by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC said it has supplied appreciable volume of petroleum products to DAPPMA and other relevant bodies in its bid to rid the fuel challenges in the country.

The statement read in part: “NNPC regrets that DAPPMA, which members had taken receipts of products from Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of NNPC and owe the company to the tune of N26.7billion as at December 21, 2017, has the audacity to indict NNPC unjustifiably.

“Despite the concession by the government giving access to DAPPMA to obtain Forex at an official rate of N305 per dollar for PMS import, their members have not been able to do so, leaving NNPC as the sole supplier of PMS to the Nigerian market.”