The Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream has revealed that Nigeria lost the sum of N784 billion to fraudulent practices in the importation of fuel in 2017 alone.
Specifically, it accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and oil marketers of 5.9 billlion litres fuel supply surplus in the outgone year.
However, the Senate rejected the report of the committee, which investigated the lingering fuel scarcity across the country.
This was the outcome of the interim report of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream investigating the lingering scarcity in the country. The document was presented at Wednesday plenary.
Chairman of the committee, Kabiru Marafa put the total surplus in the volume of petrol imported in 2017 by both the NNPC and Marketers at 5.9 billion litres which when multiplied by the N133 landing cost gives the sum of N784 billion.
He noted that shortages in the volume of fuel claimed to have been supplied by the NNPC and the Marketers were major factors that caused the scarcity of fuel.
“NNPC said it is importing 30 cargoes of 30,000MT (Minimum) of PMS monthly through the DSDP Scheme. This means NNPC is importing 30 x 30,000 x 1,341 = 1,206,900,000 litres of PMS monthly.
“Therefore, at an average consumption of 35 Million litres/day (NNPC said the country consumes between 27-30 million litres/day from January to September and 30-40 Million litres/day from September to December).
“From the above figures, NNPC monthly supply is supposed to last the country for about 35 days at 35 Million litres/ day”.
The report further pointed out that “The Marketers, on the other hand, received from Government about 1,669,180,182 at CBN rate of N305 to a dollar to import PMS from January to August 2017. This means that marketers were supposed to bring into the country about 3.8billion litres of PMS at a landing cost of N133. In other words, marketers supply were supposed to serve the country for about 109 days at 35m litres daily in 2017.
“The implication of is that NNPC has 5 days surplus every month, 60 days surplus in a year, added to the marketers 109 days supply gives a total of 169 days supply surplus of 35m litres/day or 5.9 billion litres. The question is who consumes this surplus before we ask of Subsidy?”
But lawmakers punctured the 16-page report for failing to address the contentious issue of fuel subsidy.
Consequently, they declared that what the committee did was not a true representation of its integrity, adding that the failure of the panel to investigate and expose the new wave of subsidy imposed by the Federal Government despite the absence of approval by the National Assembly was unacceptable.
The Senate asked the committee to go back and do a more thorough investigation on the real volume of petrol imported into the country as well as issues leading to the scarcity.
The upper chamber also directed its committee on Public Account to conduct an open investigation on reports of imposition of new fuel subsidy regime without the approval of the National Assembly.
The motion on the need to probe the re-introduction of subsidy was sponsored by Dino Melaye.
Other lawmakers who spoke against the report include Atai Aidoko, Stella Odua, Solomon Olamilekan and Sola Adeyeye.
In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki, noted that although the committee’s report attempted to address issues of scarcity and volume of petrol imported and consumed daily, it was not comprehensive enough.
According to Saraki, “If we are consuming 27 million litres per day and the NNPC is bringing in 40 million litres per day, what about the difference?”
Speaking with journalists after plenary, Marafa said he stood by his report, accusing his colleagues of speaking along party lines.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
