Emmanuel Leke
The Senate has agreed to investigate oil subsidies and under recovery regime operated by the Federal Government till May 29, 2023 when subsidy was eventually removed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The resolution of the Senate was sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Chiwuba Ndubueze on Tuesday.
Ndubueze in the motion, titled: “Need to Investigate the controversial Huge Expenditure on Premium Motor Spirit under the subsidy/under recovery regime by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited,” said the step taken by President Tinubu on subsidy withdrawal in May was commendable, but the regime needed to be investigated.
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He specifically submitted that while within 10 years (2006-2015), the Federal Government through NNPCL claimed N170 billion as under recovery, it expended a whopping N843.121 billion on under recovery between January 2018 and January 2019.
He added: “Very worrisome of the expenses made on subsidy/under recovery by NNPCL during the period under review, particularly from January 2021 to June 2023, was N9.3 trillion claimed to have been spent.
“The money, as shown by available records, shows that in 2021, N1.42 trillion was expended, in 2022, N4.3 trillion and in the first six months of 2023, N3.6 trillion, totalling N9.3 trillion.”
The lawmakers frowned at the N9.3 trillion expended on the subsidy regime by the Federal Government from January 2021 to June 2023.
Many of the Senators who contributed to debate on the motion frowned at bogus expenses made on the subsidy regime by NNPCL and supported all the prayers sought for in the motion.
The Senate accordingly resolved that its standing committees on Petroleum (Downstream), Petroleum (Upstream) and Finance should, when constituted, carry out holistic investigation on all controversies surrounding subsidy and under recovery regime.
It also urged the NNPCL in conjunction with some major International Oil Companies in Nigeria to form three different consortiums and build three refineries for the stabilisation of the oil market and the Nation’s economy generally.