A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Sergius Ogun, stated that, marketers are still paying in dollars to transport petroleum products within Nigeria despite a ban on the practice by the federal government.
,A participant in an ad hoc committee on petroleum downstream, Ogun revealed this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily today.
He made the remark while discussing the nation’s ongoing, months-long fuel shortage.
Last week, the Department of State Services gave oil marketers a 48-hour deadline to make the product available to Nigerians. However, there are still long lines at gas stations across the nation, and many of them are reportedly charging as much as N300 per litre.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited on Tuesday was also urged by the House of Representatives to resolve the current petrol shortage situation within seven days.
While speaking about the ultimatum, Ogun said: “I think this is doable in seven days. The challenge really is that there is a shortfall in supply. The suppliers were not willing to give the refined product because NNPC was owing them.
“The mother vessels that bring the refined products are in Lagos and the daughter vessels are going there to take. You charter those daughter vessels with dollars. They said it used to be about $30,000 but now it’s about $60,000.
“Also, the NPA takes their docking charges in dollars, NIMASA takes their fees in dollars.
“I actually heard that there was a memo from the Villa by the late Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to the President, who met with the then Minister of Transportation and other government agencies and directed that they should start taking their tariffs and fees in naira but he was ignored.
“These people [marketers] are going to the black market to buy dollars, because CBN is not giving them dollars, for these transactions with government agencies within the country.
“Now you are wondering why there is scarcity. NNPC is broke. They are not remitting money to the federation account, and they don’t have money to pay suppliers. They can’t deny this. If they deny, just ask them to bring their stock record for November, December 2020, November, December 2021 and this year.”
He said the Federal Government should dredge the river down south for the mother vessels to take the refined petroleum products close, adding that this would reduce the landing cost.
Ogun also stated that the president must be firm enough to dislodge the cartels in the oil sector who are driving the prices of the products high for their own selfish gains.
