THE House of Representatives yesterday mandated its Committees on Petroleum Resources, Upstream, and Downstream to investigate the lingering fuel scarcity. This followed a motion by Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama which was unanimously adopted.
Leading the debate, Ogbeide-Ihama said Nigerians were experiencing difficulties because of the persistent problems in oil and gas sector.
He blamed the lingering scarcity of petroleum products on the absence of functional refineries to serve local consumption.
“This is responsible for the dependence on imported products, hence the regular fuel crisis in the country which is causing untold hardship to Nigerians,’’ the lawmaker said.
According to him, the Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri refining and petrochemical companies were reported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to have incurred debts amounting to about N120. 07 billion in August and September.
“While their revenue in August was N146.617billion, the expenditure was N207.287 billion; in September, the revenue generated by the refineries was N112.514 billion and the expenditure was pegged at N171.914 billion,’’ he said.
However, Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, said it was unfortunate that nobody had explained why the refineries had failed to function. According to him, nobody has answered why refineries work in other parts of the world, but don’t work in Nigeria.
Gbajabiamila cautioned that removing oil subsidy now would affect the living conditions of Nigerians.
“Let us first develop the political will to fix the refineries, then, we can begin to talk about the removal of subsidy. If you remove the subsidy now, it will skyrocket the cost of living for the common man,’’ he said.
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