The President Lied:nnpc

‘Yar’Adua Is a Liar!’


So says the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary wholly owned by NNPC that is responsible for the marketing and distribution of petroleum products on behalf of the corporation. Both organisations have been at pains in the last one week to portray THISDAY Newspaper, as a lying, inconsistent news media organisation. Their seething rage stems from the expose published by this paper on Saturday, October 24 on the oil cartel that has been feeding fat from the multimillion dollar kickbacks resulting from the disgraceful importation regime of fuel products into the country. A regime, which I must add, has persisted for 15 years, making Nigeria the laughing stock of other oil producing countries and the whole world.
However, by stating that this paper fabricated the story that a clique within NNPC/PPMC receives N75 million in commissions for every shipment of refined products brought in by oil/commodity traders, NNPC and PPMC have unwittingly portrayed the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a liar. Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, it will be recalled, had during a press briefing on May 12, 2009, acknowledged that there is a powerful cartel that has been benefiting from the subsidy regime for fuel products. In an uncharacteristic flash of anger, the president vowed to crush the cartel, describing it as “the greatest institutional corruption in this country.” In the president’s opinion, this cartel had brought pressure to bear on oil marketers to resist the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector which the government attempted to implement at the time.
Before I continue it will be fair to put the president’s statement in proper perspective. It was made at the time fuel queues had resurfaced, following a decision by oil marketers from the private sector to stop the importation of products into the country over non-payment of subsidy claims. Alarmed at the unsustainable subsidy bill, the government reckoned that the timing might be right to lift the cap on fuel prices. The decision was further encouraged by relatively low oil prices which were hovering at $40 to $50 a barrel. To the surprise of the government, instead of getting the backing of operators in the sector, there was resistance to deregulation, prompting the reaction from the president that a cartel is feeding off the subsidy regime,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=158699

The president cannot assume total ignorance of the composition of that cartel. In due course nigerians shall be privy to the members of that corrupt group that dug deep into our sides.