The House of Representatives has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to end the lingering petrol scarcity within a seven-day period.
At the plenary on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, the lawmakers particularly asked NNPC to end this artificial scarcity within the next one week in order to ease the suffering of Nigerians.
While maintaining that the state-owned oil and gas company must ensure an adequate supply of petrol within seven days, the House called on the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NMDPRA) to seek the collaboration of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), and the State Security Service (SSS) to ensure that fuel was sold at the regulated price and in all retail outlets.
Moving the motion, a member of the House, Musa Abdullahi noted that in the last few months, Nigerians had been subjected to untold hardship caused by the lingering petrol scarcity, affecting economic activities and making the already trying times in the country more difficult.
He said, “The House is concerned that intelligence reports on current fuel scarcity gathered by our securities agencies indicated that there is a deliberate plan by some oil marketers to derail the effort of the government in the distribution of fuel in the country by hoarding the petroleum products and, thereby, creating artificial scarcity all over the country.
“The House is further concerned that while the fuel scarcity is heating petrol stations of some major marketers that are currently selling fuel at government regulated price, some independent marketers who operate in the market have enough petroleum products selling at unregulated prices.
“The House is worried that most of those fuelling stations have resulted in selling fuel at over N300 per litre. It is observed with dismay that those who are gaining from this artificial fuel scarcity appear to be smiling home as a result of this ugly development and this has the potency to provoke innocent Nigerians against the Government.”
