The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Hameed Ali, on Wednesday said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has been lying over the figures of petrol it supplied to the nation daily.
He spoke on before a House of Representatives Committee on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2023-2025.
Ali said it was a lie that the NNPC supplies about 98 million litres of petrol for the country on a daily basis while putting the actual consumption at 60 million litres per day.
Ali, who decried the high cost of petroleum subsidy, said to have risen to over N6 trillion, blamed the NNPC for some of the infractions in the country’s oil sector.
He said: “The issue is not about the smuggling of petroleum.
“I have always argued this with NNPC.
“If we are consuming 60 million litres of petrol per day by their own computations, why in the world do you allow the lifting of petroleum of 98 million litres per day?
“Why, if you know this is our consumption, why do you allow that lifting?
“That is one.
“That computation to me is not anything to be believed because scientifically, you cannot tell me that I filled my tank today and tomorrow, I will still fill my tank with the same quantity of fuel.
“And if I’m running a petrol station, for instance, today, if I go to Minna Depot and lift a truck and I’m taking it to Kaduna, if I reach Kaduna in the evening and offload that truck that evening, there’s no way I could have sold that petrol for you to have said that it has been expended.
“So, how do we get to 60 million litres every day?
“These are my problems.
“If you say you release 98 million litres and then, we use only 60 million litres, the balance will be 38 million litres.
“How many trucks will that 38 million litres every day be?
“That will be almost 500 trucks.
“Which roads are they following?
“Where are they carrying them to?”
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