The Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum said on Wednesday that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s revenue leakages were caused by President Muhammadu Buhari’s (retd.) continued oversight of the portfolio of Minister of Petroleum Resources.
They demanded that the two portfolios be separated as soon as possible.
This was revealed in a communiqué issued by the governors following their meeting in Aba, Abia State.
“We believe that all of the NNPC leaks are the result of the President’s dual role as Minister of Petroleum.” The governors insisted that these two portfolios be separated as soon as possible.
The communique, read by Aminu Tambuwal, chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and governor of Sokoto State, noted that the NNPC deducts N8.33 billion per month for the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s refineries, but no refinery has been operational as of yet.
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They also pointed out that the NNPC deducted N788.78 billion for various investments in the oil and gas sector between 2018 and 2021, without consulting the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee.
As a result, the PDPGF dismissed the NNPC’s claims that it paid about N1 trillion in petroleum subsidies in a single year.
“In 2021, the NNPC claimed to have paid over One Trillion Naira in petroleum subsidies alone.” Indeed, N220 billion was deducted as an oil subsidy in March 2022, with the promise that N328 billion would be deducted in April 2022. This is completely unacceptable.
“The NNPC, the FIRS, and other remitting agencies continue to use a N389/$1 exchange rate as opposed to the N416/$1 Import and Export window.” When this rate is compared to the current N570/$1 rate, the magnitude of the leakage becomes clearer.
“According to available records, the NNPC withheld N7.6 trillion from the Federation Account between 2012 and 2021. All of these are said to be oil subsidy payments. All of these leaks in the NNPC, we believe, have been made possible by the fact that the President is also the Minister of Petroleum. The governors stated that “the urgent separation of these two portfolios has become necessary.”
Despite selling crude oil for $110, the PDP governors chastised the NNPC for failing to make its statutory contributions to the Federation Account.
“It is patently unconstitutional for NNPC to determine when and what to pay to the Federation Account at its whim and discretion, as it is merely a trustee of the funds for the three tiers of government: Federal, States, and Local Governments,” they argue.
“We once again call for investigations and audits into the amount of fuel consumption attributed to Nigerians, as well as the deployment of technology at filling stations to determine the volume of consumption transparently.” The governors will fight any further attempts by the NNPC to blame other levels of government for unsubstantiated subsidy claims.”
The governors raised concerns at the meeting about various reports of crude oil theft involving 80 percent to 95 percent of the output industry’s stakeholders.
They urged the FG to put in place strong mechanisms to prevent this from happening again and to punish those who are found guilty.
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