A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has insisted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, under its Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, is shortchanging Nigerians.
National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a recent statement, corroborated the accusation of the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (retd.), and faulted the N6.34tn subsidy payment on Premium Motor Spirit (popularly called petrol) claim by the state run Energy firm.
The statement read in part, “HURIWA wonders why Nigeria has not hired a world class forensic auditors that are credible enough and can’t be compromised to comprehensively audit the total litres of fuel consumed in Nigeria since most transactions on petroleum products are metered across the Country.
“It does not take Rocket Science to scientifically and accurately ascertain how much volumes of local fuel consumptions that take place in the entire Country daily”
“It is shameful how two government agencies are contradicting themselves publicly. Col. Hameed Ali (retd.) has thrown an open challenge at his NNPC counterpart and Nigerians are waiting for the explanation of Mele Kyari.
“There is no doubt that the NNPC is shortchanging Nigeria and Nigerians using vacuous and bogus subsidy claims because for now, it is not clear if any open and public records exist to show these details to allow for transparency and accountability which are the hallmarks of good governance.”
Ali, the Customs helmsman, during a presentation before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance in Abuja recently, alleged that the nation’s oil company was supplying an excess of 38 million litres of PMS daily even as the NNPC cannot scientifically prove the 98 million litres per day consumption it was claiming,
“If we are consuming 60 million litres of PMS per day, by their own computation, why would you allow the release of 98 million litres per day? If you know this is our consumption, why would you allow that release? He queried.
“Scientifically, you cannot tell me that if I fill my tank today, tomorrow, I will fill the same tank with the same quantity of fuel.
“If I am operating a fuel station today and I go to Minna depot, lift petrol and take it to Kaduna, I may get to Kaduna in the evening and offload that fuel. There is no way I would have sold off that petrol immediately to warrant another load. So, how did you get to 60 million litre per day? That is my problem,” Ali stated.
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