Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Hon. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa has urged Federal Government and authorities of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to take urgent steps to revert to the old pump price of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol.
Hon. Ado-Doguwa’s clarion call came on the heel of public outcry against the recent upward review in the pump price of PMS from N617 to N880 per litre as announced by NNPCL.
Sequel to the announcement, Motorists and other Nigerians have continued to languish over unabated scarcity of PMS as well as long queues persist.
Some of the Motorists have resorted to patronize Black Marketers who sell PMS between N1,400 and N1,500 per litre. In Abuja as against the N880 at the NNPCL mega filling stations, while independent marketers sell between N950 and N970 per litre in major parts of the nation’s capital city and neighbouring communities.
In a statement issued by Hon. Ado-Doguwa who was the Majority Leader in the 9th Assembly described as unacceptable a situation where private companies take advantage of gaps in the system to make arbitrary profits at the expense of Nigerians.
He said: “As a Committee, we urge the Nigerian government and of course the NNPCL to consider the plight of Nigerians and suspend this recent increase in pump price. Nigerians are currently going through a lot today and adding to this burden is not in our collective best interest.
“Let us revert to the old pump price as soon as possible.” And probably intensify engagements with major stakeholders to to address the problem.
Hon. Ado-Doguwa who also chairs the Special Committee on Crude Oil Theft and Vandalisation of pipelines, vowed that the Committee to tackle the challenge caused by loss of revenue to government owing to loss of crude.
“As a Special Committee, we will aggressively seek modalities to interface with the youths and community leaders in the oil-producing areas to address the frequent cases of crude oil theft, which is one of the reasons capable of affecting petrol supply across the country.
“We are working in collaboration with security agencies in their quest to secure oil pipelines and other critical facilities in the country. We believe that a return to the old pump price will calm frayed nerves, thus enabling Nigerians to go about their daily activities with ease,” he noted.
The lawmaker also advised Nigerians to give the President Tinubu-led government a chance to reposition the oil and gas sector, noting that with the Petroleum Industry Act coupled with the effort to revive the nation’s refineries; Nigeria would in no distant time, reap the benefit of her oil and gas endowments to the benefit of the entire citizenry.
“We believe that with the interventions the government is making to commence operations at Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, these challenges will come to an end,” Doguwa added.
According to the All Progressives Congress chieftain, the challenges in the nation’s oil and gas sector are largely due to the failure of successive administrations to muster the courage to do the right thing, adding that the APC-led government is bent on making the country take her rightful place in the comity of nations.
“We may be suffering today but our tomorrow will be better. The government of the day is taking significant steps which may be painful today but very soon, we will beat our chest as proud Nigerians because the future is great. Tinubu means well for us and he is desirous of leaving a legacy that future generations will be proud of,” he stressed.
TRIBUNE
