The Senate Aviation Committee has blamed the aviation fuel scarcity disrupting airline operations in Nigeria on moribund refineries across the country.
While revealing that it is wealthy Nigerians that smuggle the commodity out of the country to neighbouring countries in Africa, Senator Smart Adeyemi, the Chairman of the committee said the lack of reliable refineries in the country is causing the aviation sector serious problems.
Maintaining that no economy can thrive when smuggling sabotages the government’s efforts to make life easier for the people, the lawmaker explained that the increase in the number of travellers who now prefer to use flights due to insecurity, has also worsened the situation.
Adeyemi said, “Before now, we used to procure our oil from Europe but they no longer have that capacity, especially because of the diplomatic issue between Europe and Russia. Europe is no longer buying fuel from Russia, so they have to do with what they have. As you can see, the pump price of PMS has gone up in Europe itself.
“The consequence for us is that what we would have used as proceeds is what we are using to import back PMS to the country for local consumption. The same thing goes for aviation; the JET A-1 that is being imported is beyond what our country is consuming. Nigerians are smuggling JET A-1 to other West African countries. So, it means neighbouring countries live on what Nigeria is bringing in and that accounts for why the subsidy keeps increasing.”
“The people doing this bunker and stealing of our resources aren’t ordinary Nigerians. They are rich and powerful people who have become cabals; they do this stealing in very large quantities. How can anybody justify that 80% of what we produce is stolen?” the lawmaker queried.
