By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has been asked to immediately suspend the four companies accused of importing adulterated Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), better known as petrol, into the country recently.
Long queues had resurfaced this week in Lagos and Abuja and the cause was because of substandard fuel in circulation and on Wednesday, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, accused Oando, MRS Oil, Duke Oil and Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium of bringing the bad product into Nigeria.
However, MRS Oil, in a statement, denied the allegation, emphasising that as a responsible corporate citizen, it will “not be involved in the purchase, importation, distribution or marketing of substandard petroleum products in Nigeria.”
At the plenary on Thursday, the House of Representatives, while expressing concern over the issue, said the four companies must be suspended by the NNPC.
The lower chamber of the parliament described the development as “a failure on the part of regulatory and monitoring agencies,” noting that efforts must be to ensure that the bad product does not cause further damage and hardship to Nigerians.
In a motion moved by the Chief Whip of the House, Mr Mohammed Tahir Monguno, and contributed to by several members, it was stated that many motorists have begun to report engine failures in their vehicles such as sudden breakdowns on the roads.
One of the lawmakers, Mr Tajudeen Yusuf, said the importation of bad fuel was another symptom of the sickness plaguing the entire system, expressing surprise about how the adulterated petrol escaped the scrutiny of the layers of regulatory bodies both at the port of entry and onshore.
“I feel saddened that the layers of laboratory inspection failed until the bad fuel got into vehicles in the country.
“This is the unfortunate situation in our country; everyone thinks of their pockets first and looks the other way,” he said.
On his part, Mr Abdulganiyu Johnson suggested a review of the policy on the ease of doing business in Nigeria, stating that the policy was affecting the economy negatively in some way because relevant regulatory agencies were no longer doing their jobs thoroughly.
The House, in passing the motion, directed the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to ensure their investigation covers all other petroleum products imported into the country lately, to ascertain their conformity to standard and safety for use.
