SENATE NAMES OIL SUBSIDY THIEVES

Adenuga, Tinubu, Dantata, Iheanacho fingered
The Senate has formally named Nigerians who have stolen and benefitted from the oil subsidy, causing pains and hardship to ordinary Nigerian citizens with Oando, owned by Wale Tinubu, younger brother of former Lagos Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Sayyud Dantata MRS oil topping the list.

Mike Adenuga’s CONOIL and construction companies, one of them suspected to be Julius Berger were named as the culprits.
Among the names reeled out by the  Senator Abe led Committee are; Oando Nigerian Plc. – N228.506 b, MRS – N224.818 billion, Enak Oil & Gas – N19.684 billion, CONOIl – N37.960 billion, Bovas & Co. Nig. Ltd. – N5.685 billion, Obat N85 billion and AP; N104.5billion.

Also on the list are Folawiyo Oil - N113.3billion; IPMAN Investment Limited- N10.9billion; ACON - N24.1billion, Atio Oil-N64.4billion, AMP- N11.4billion; Honeywell-N12.2billion; Emac Oil- N19.2billion; D.Jones Oil-N14.8billion; Capital Oil - N22.4billion; AZ Oil- N18.613billion; Eterna oil- N5.57 billion; Dozil oil- N3.375 billion; and Fort oil-N8.582 billion.

Also, Integrated Oil and Gas owned by former Minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho was mentioned and is said to have benefitted to the tune of N30.777 billion, while IPMAN Investment Limited pocketed the sum of N10.9 billion.

Abe did not name the registered construction companies that benefited from the racket.

However, the alleged N450 billion kerosene subsidies owed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by the federal government was debunked by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) which told the lawmakers that the claims were not in their books.

Meanwhile, the executive secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Mr. Reginald Elijah disclosed that between 2006 and September 2011, a whopping N3.655 trillion was expended on fuel subsidies.

He however differed from the figures – N1.426 trillion submitted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as subsidies on the products as at August 2011, arguing that the actual figure was N1.348 trillion.

The panel also discovered a good number of the marketers did not meet the conditions for pre-qualifications to benefit from the subsidies adding that they are most times in the habit of making false claims; “leading to drain in the nation’s oil and gas industry”.

According to the panel chairman, prospective marketers were required to own tank farms (petrol deports) of not less than 5000 metric tonnes, and should be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as oil companies.

“Yet it was discovered that while only 11 marketers own storage facilities, the rest were “throughput” (sharing depots with filling stations) and some were registered construction companies,” he said.

Nonetheless, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Austin Oniwon told the panel that whereas a locally refined barrel of petrol costs $5, with a subsidy of N11.85 per barrel, the independent marketers were being subsidized with N77 per litre of N138.71, amounting to N12, 243 per barrel.

While adjourning sitting to Monday December 12, Senator Abe directed Oniwon to produce total amounts expended on turn around maintenance from 1999 to date, total dividends accruing to NNPC from the Joint Venture Companies, names of accused marketers, investigations conducted, results and subsequent punishments to defaulters at the next sitting.