THE Nigerian Senate on Wednesday rejected the interim report on fuel crisis nationwide submitted by its Committee on Downstream Petroleum sector.

Senators, who spoke after the presentation of the report by Senator Kabiru Marafa (APC, Zamfara Central),  chairman of the committee, strongly criticised it, with some senators concluding that the report was not written by the committee but by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

The lawmakers, who noted that the 16-page report did not meet their expectations, said, however, that it energised the corruption that was on going, adding that it was not a representation of Senate’s integrity.

After the criticism, the Senate resolved that the committee should take the report back and do a more thorough investigation on the real volume of petrol imported into the country as well as issues that led to the scarcity which is still lingering.

It also directed its Committee on Public Accounts to conduct an open investigation on reports of imposition of new fuel subsidy regime without the approval of the National Assembly.

Also, the Senate said the NNPC and independent marketers defrauded Nigeria to the tune of N784.700 billions on surplus volume of fuel importation of about 5.9 billion litres in 2017 alone.

It equally directed its committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to carry out thorough investigation on the alleged fraud.

The Senate threatened to sanction the executive constitutionally on any unappropriated spending made, henceforth, particularly as regards the illegal subsidy regime of N26 per litre being effected on fuel sales in the country.

According to the report, the N784 billion fraud came about through five days surplus importation at 35 million litres per day by NNPC on monthly basis, totalling 60 days surplus importation in addition to marketers 109 days surplus supply.   – Vanguard

–  Jan.  18, 2018 @ 15:17 GMT /