Piqued by the inability of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC Ltd to provide the accurate figure of daily consumption of Premium Motor Spirit PMS in the country, an Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives yesterday summoned 43 oil companies allegedly involved in fuel distribution across the country.
He however regretted that most of the invited companies have deliberately failed to appear before the Committee despite several invitations.
According to the lawmaker, the companies in the said letter are to be given up to second week of August 2022 to appear before the Committee or face an “unpalatable” consequences.
He explained that their actions could be interpreted to mean an attempt to sabotage efforts of the Committee to establish the accurate figure of daily fuel consumption in Nigeria.
Speaking further, the Committee Chairman explained that it’s important to establish the actual figure of fuel consumed in Nigeria daily to assist in solving the controversial fuel subsidy regime.
He added that the probe would no doubt help to strengthen fiscal federalism in the country as the figures is crucial to national planning.
He said that apart from bringing the companies to the parliament to explain the number of litres of fuel they distribute on daily basis, members of the Committee will also visit the distribution centers of the various companies.
Some of the invited oil companies include Petrocam Ltd, DP Oil Ltd, MRS Oil Ltd,,Sahara Energy Ltd, Oando Plc, AYM Shafa Ltd, Vitol Ltd, Transfigura Ltd, Prudent Energy Ltd, Brittania-U Ltd, Prudent Energy and Matrix Energy Ltd among others.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Navy NN has disclosed that it arrested a total of 174 vessel in the nation’s territorial waters that were on involved in Oil related offences
Testifying before the House panel, Rear Admiral Oluwagbemi who represented the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Awalu Gambo said that the vessels were arrested in the nation’s territorial waters between January 2017 and July 2021.