BY: News Peddlers
The ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives on the volume of fuel consumed daily in the country has announced that it will inspect oil vessels seized by the Nigeria Navy and docked at the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA.
The committee stated that this was due to discrepancies in the number of oil vessels seized by the NPA.
The committee's Chairman, Abdulkadiri Abdullahi, revealed this in Abuja on Wednesday when the NPA, led by Onari Brown, the Executive Director, Marine and Operations, appeared before it.
Mr. Abdullahi questioned the NPA report's omission of the amount of fuel consumed daily, claiming that the committee saw it as a deliberate attempt.
He stated that the NPA should include the date and time the vessel arrived, emphasizing that the committee would obtain a suitable date for an oversight.
"We will schedule an oversight for this because we see discrepancies in what NPA says."
"If all of the vessels arrested are brought to you, we need to identify and inspect them; the Nigeria Navy told us that all seized vessels were dropped in your premises," Mr. Abdullahi said.
He urged the NPA to rearrange its presentation and include the payment of quarterly charges as well as the volume.
Mr. Abdullahi explained that the committee had given the NPA until October 17 to reappear before it for further investigation, and he urged the NPA to bring all payment records to the NNPC.
Earlier, Brown stated that he would not withhold information from the committee, adding, "I will never, ever disrespect this house. I was a member once, and I understand the implications of keeping information hidden."
He stated that not including the record of daily fuel consumption in the document presented was an error that would be corrected, emphasizing that no imported products entered the country without the knowledge of NPA.
"There is no way a ship will come for imported product and we will not know."
"In terms of NPA, only NNPC brings fuel to Nigeria. We don't recognize anyone else, and we don't deal with anyone else," he explained.
In addition, the Ministry of Petroleum lamented a lack of coordination among its agencies.
According to Mohammed Mohammed, Director of Downstream, the problem with synergy was that the ministry did not receive the majority of the information it required from the agencies.
He stated that interacting with the agencies was always difficult and that the ministry had not received updates on all of the issues raised for it to study them, including the mainstream.
"Perhaps the National Assembly will use its position to emphasize synergy."
"I don't know how much we're consuming; I'm just a new person," Mr. Mohammed explained.
The committee, on the other hand, requested that the ministry of petroleum document its complaints.
The committee's chairman recalled that the permanent secretary at the ministry was said to have admitted that the country consumed 38 million liters per day.
Mr. Abdullahi requested that the ministry appears before the committee again on November 14 at 2 p.m. for further investigation.
NAN