Senate President Bukola Saraki has faulted reported use of $1.05billion, by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), from its dividends from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) for fuel subsidy.


Saraki said the Senate would, therefore, on resumption of plenary today investigate the claims made before the Senator Ahmad Lawan’s Ad-hoc Committee by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru, on how and why the corporation diverted the dividend from the NLNG to defray the cost of under-recovery in the importation of fuel.

The Senate president, who was quoted as saying this while speaking with newsmen at the Ilorin airport on Monday, according to a statement by his media adviser, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, admitted that he had received series of telephone calls on the issue by many concerned Nigerians, “Who wanted to know the position of the Senate on the issues raised by the NNPC’s GMD before the Ahmad Lawan’s Ad-hoc Committee.”

Saraki expressed grave concern that the NNPC GMD was claiming that the illegal diversion of dividends from the NLNG, which should be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation for the purpose of funding the fuel subsidy “was done ‘in compliance with the National Assembly directive that NNPC as the supplier of last resort should, and has, maintained robust petrol supply”.

He wondered that “so, if the National Assembly called on NNPC to carry out its legitimate duty of ensuring adequate fuel supply to Nigerians, the GMD logically thinks the corporation by that call has the licence to perpetrate illegality, spend money without approval and violate appropriation laws”.

“It is my belief that if the National Assembly said the corporation should perform its duty effectively as a supplier of fuel to Nigerians without exposing people to needless suffering, that ought to be done within the ambit of the law.”

Saraki added that Senate probe of the unauthorised spending by NNPC will require the GMD to produce the approval given by the National Assembly and other necessary approving bodies authorising the NNPC to divert the dividend from the NLNG investment, “which ought to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund belonging to the three tiers of government, for the payment of fuel subsidy”.

According to him, the disclosure by the NNPC boss in response to enquiries by the Senate adhoc committee probing the issue of illegal payment of subsidy on fuel, called for further investigation by the Senate and also showed that as alleged in a motion moved earlier by Senate Minority Leader, Senator Biodun Olujimi, a lot of illegal and unapproved spendings are going on in the petroleum corporation.

He, therefore, assured Nigerians that Senate would thoroughly investigate this matter saying “there will be no cover up.”
Saraki also expressed confidence that the ad-hoc committee would do a thorough job.
“All the issues will be unearthed. That is why when the Senate set up investigative committees on issues, we want Nigerians to have confidence in us that we do not act because we want to embark on a wild goose chase. There must be some serious issues to be looked into. The revelations by the NNPC’s GMD have justified the need for this investigation and they have shown that we are acting in good faith.

“When in my ruling on the motion raised by Senator Olujimi, I insisted that we want a transparent, honest and non-partisan investigation on the fuel subsidy issue, it was clear to me and my colleagues that there are certain irregularities being perpetrated and we should let Nigerians know the truth. That is why we set up the committee in the first place and to demonstrate the seriousness we attach to the issue, we decided that the ad-hoc committee should be led by the Leader of the Senate, Senator Ahmad,” Senate President further said.
Baru had last Thursday told the Senator Lawan-led ad-hoc committee that the corporation spent $1.05billion to defray underrecovery cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from October, 2017 to date.

He emphasised that what the corporation did in the wake of shortfall in fuel supply between October 2017 and January 2018″ was to devise other means of securing PMS on the advise of the National Assembly.”
According to him, NNPC utilised $1.05billion from its dividends in NLNG to finance the additional landing and other expenses of PMS.

https://www.akelicious.net/2018/11/saraki-decries-use-of-105bn-nlng.html

This secret opaque corrupt fuel subsidy regime Buhari is running is enough ground fro his impeachment

Naija my country

jeffizy:
Unfortunately, the Ilorin Lion has no moral justification to fault any disbursement of funds.


He who comes to a table of equity must do so with clean hands.

Then must we continue like this..not justifying or making saraki look like a saint.Someone must talk.

quite unfortunate APC played politics and ridiculed the previous government years ago with subsidy even when they do not have it's antidote.

from the look of things only the dangote refinery will rescue us from this quagmire.

jeffizy:
Unfortunately, the Ilorin Lion has no moral justification to fault any disbursement of funds.


He who comes to a table of equity must do so with clean hands.

Will you shut up your mouth? How old are you again?


Tell me one person that possess the moral justification to fault the outright wastage of Nigeria's scarce resources. Is you or Buhari

jeffizy:
Unfortunately, the Ilorin Lion has no moral justification to fault any disbursement of funds.


He who comes to a table of equity must do so with clean hands.

what did you smoke this early morning?. OK please take your self righteousness to somewhere else cos it's one of the over sight functions of the legislature.

The looting going under this govt is massive and will be realised only when Buhari is kicked out of office in 2019 . God save and protect us for Mr Integrity has finished our yam

Your stupidity knows no bounds

jeffizy:
Unfortunately, the Ilorin Lion has no moral justification to fault any disbursement of funds.


He who comes to a table of equity must do so with clean hands.

The fuel subsidy issue has become a means by which the opposition makes the government of the day look bad.

By this statement, I don't mean to say that the Senate should not investigate the problem. They should.

But the truth is, at the end of the day, the scam is going to continue because the alternative.....removing fuel subsidy completely, and by extension shutting down the scam, is going to lead to higher fuel prices of N200 and above...which would lead to serious protests by Nigerians.

(And the funny thing is that Nigerians are complaining about the scam, yet don;t want to do the needful and support the removal of the scam).

All I am saying is this...oil subsidy has to go. Completely, so that the government and NNPC no longer have any excuse to be paying subsidy and by extension one part of the corruption monster would be destroyed. And long term....investment would flow into the oil industry, leading to jobs, facilities, and an end to fuel scarcity for good.

But unfortunately, Nigerians prefer lowprices, and the elite prefer to keep the subsidy scam going...only complaining about it when it is time to remove either the PDP or the APC from power...so that the winners can take over the scam....

mbaboy:
The looting going under this govt is massive and will be realised only when Buhari is kicked out of office in 2019 . God save and protect us for Mr Integrity has finished our yam

Yet, you guys were clapping for Atiku when he said he would cut fuel to N90 perliter

What that means (and mind you, our petrol needs are far far in excess of what we can refine, even with Dangote coming on line) is that subsidy payments would increase drastically....fuelling the corruption that is subsidy.

The thing is, you guys...APC or PDP only care about subsidy when you can use it as a political weapon (APC did so back in 2014...see Bubu claiming what is subsidy)....because the alternative....removing subsidy completely...scares you

1.For ordinary Nigerians, it means higher fuel prices.

2.For the elite, PDP or APC and the NNPC....it means no more subsidy slush funds...everyone has to work for their money now.

So, if you really want the scam to go, do support fuel subsidy removal. But the truth is, you won't.

mbaboy:
The looting going under this govt is massive and will be realised only when Buhari is kicked out of office in 2019 . God save and protect us for Mr Integrity has finished our yam

Nigeria's Yam can never be finished unless there is a Nuclear Holocaust in Africa.

Saraki is right. This is another wreckless decision of unpatriotic focusless government.
The handling of Abacha Loot is a bad and wreckless decision too. That Money was "a Capital Earning" that could have been spent to develop the 36 States uniformly.

No b only decries....
Buh of thief's making laws

nzeobi:
quite unfortunate APC played politics and ridiculed the previous government years ago with subsidy even when they do not have it's antidote.

from the look of things only the dangote refinery will rescue us from this quagmire.

Dangote refinery still can't solve the problems, I believe dangote refinery is producing 750k liters per day I am not sure but with that we still need to import over 3 million litres per day to meet up.

So for this issue of subsidy to stop we need more 5 dangote refinery even with all our refineries working at full capacity

We have never had corruption as brazen as under Buhari. Buhari will make Abacha a saint when his corrupt deals are revealed.

jeffizy:
Unfortunately, the Ilorin Lion has no moral justification to fault any disbursement of funds.


He who comes to a table of equity must do so with clean hands.

Focus on the message!

gare:


Dangote refinery still can't solve the problems, I believe dangote refinery is producing 750k liters per day I am not sure but with that we still need to import over 3 million litres per day to meet up.

So for this issue of subsidy to stop we need more 5 dangote refinery even with all our refineries working at full capacity

Dangote Refinery is 650k barrels per day and 1 barrel (about 159 litres crude oil) can yield up to 70 litres of petrol. It will really go a long way but we have to wait for it.