The Senate has queried Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Group Managing Director, Dr. Mikanti Baru, over the reported payment of N26 per litre subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol.
Baru had last week said the NNPC was paying N26 on a litre of fuel to bridge the gap in the difference between the N145 approved as pump price and the landing cost of N171.
This revelation came to the fore when Baru spoke with newsmen on the scarcity of petrol, which became noticeable on December 7 and is yet to abate.
The following day, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, distanced the Federal Government from the payment.
Osinbajo said the NNPC, corporation under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and with President Muhammadu Buhari as Minister of Petroleum Resources, was making the payment without taking the money from the Federal Government.
Already, the Senate Committee on Petroleum has sent invitations to Baru and other stakeholders on the reported payment of subsidy by the NNPC without the approval of the National Assembly, which is in charge of approval of all payments.
Addressing newsmen ahead of the meeting with concerned stakeholders in the oil sector in January, the Chairman, Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa, in company with the spokesman of the Senate, Senator Abdullahi Sabi, said NNPC would explain to the Senate during the meeting why there is persistent fuel scarcity despite assurances that the scarcity will soon be over and also the payment of the N26 subsidy on a litre of fuel.
Marafa vowed to stop the illegal subsidy regime, which, according to him, was not in any way appropriated for.
According to him, the NNPC and other stakeholders in the sector will have to explain to Nigerians how they arrived at the alleged subsidy payment more than a year after its stoppage.
Marafa said: “At our slated investigative public hearing on the sector next week Thursday, NNPC and other stakeholders should be prepared to explain to Nigerians who approved the subsidy for them and who appropriated it?
“There is complacency in the sector and sharp practices that must be stopped.
“They want to take us back to subsidy regime that has never been beneficial to ordinary Nigerians across the country.
“We cannot go back to such scam called regime, which robbed the country N10 trillion between 2006 and 2016.”
Marafa added that transparency in governance, which the government started with in 2015, must be strictly adhered to as far as sale and importation of fuel is concerned.
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