HOARDED FUEL: FG orders free distribution

...Opens talks with Senate on N413bn subsidy payment

The Federal Government has ordered the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to seize and distribute fuel free of charge to consumers from stations hoarding the product.
The order came last night as the current fuel scarcity bites harder across the country. The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who gave the directive, said most of the stations in Abuja had fuel but were hoarding the products.
He said: "I have also instructed the DPR, that as they proceed, they should give all the products of those hoarding it for free to customers who are out there and impose serious penalties on the stations. Sealing them is not the answer but penalising them and

 I hope the message goes out loud and clear. I urge Nigerians to be a bit patient and stop panic buying."
Kachikwu also said that the Federal Government may pay oil marketers the approved N413 bil­lion outstanding subsidy claims next week, following discussions with the Senate.
After inspecting some filling stations in Abuja, the minister declared that the country needs to find a lasting solution to the frequent scarcity of petrol. Long queues have characterised the nation's filling stations following shortages attributed to the failure of the government to pay marketers the almost N470 billion debt.
According to him, "I have had to talk to the Senate President and he is working with his team to ensure that something is done about that. It is all part of the pro­cess which has to be followed but I have assured marketers that they will get their money.
"I am sure that within the next one or two weeks, this will be done and the President is look­ing at shorter ways to get this done and once we get the Senate's concurrence, even if the approval for the extra budgetary allocation has not come, the President will au­thorise the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay the money."
"We have made provisions al­ready and have gotten the approv­al out of the executive but require the process of going through the legislature; we just don't spend money that way, we are a process-driven organisation and country, so that is what is happening," he added.
Kachikwu, who also doubles as the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petrole­um Corporation (NNPC), howev­er, warned that the country could not continue on current process and would need to work out a way of avoiding shortages of petroleum products.
He said he is working with President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources, to find longterm solutions to the situation.
Kachikwu insisted that government has no plan to reduce the pump price of petrol from the current N87 per litre.
He said: "I can be very clear that there is no price reduction coming because frankly, sustaining subsidy at the rate where we are is a major problem for the country and it is only happening through the magnanimity of the President."
We've not received Buhari's letter - Senate
But the Senate said on Tuesday that it was yet to get Buhari's letter on the N413 billion to pay subsidy claims to oil importers and marketers.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, told journalists that the Senate was still awaiting the Presidency's letter on the matter.
Kachikwu had last Wednesday reiterated his earlier promise that the Federal Government would pay the money this week.
He had announced two weeks ago that President Buhari had written a letter to the Senate to approve the N413 billion by way of a supplementary budget to pay the oil marketers.
Briefing Senate correspond­ents on correspondences from the Presidency, Abdullahi said there has not been any letter to the Sen­ate leadership on supplementary budget capturing the N413 billion subsidy payments.
He pledged that the Upper Chamber will treat such com­munication with dispatch once it is transmitted to it, given the cur­rent hardship Nigerians have been exposed to by the present acute fuel scarcity.
He said: "Well, if it has come to the Senate, surely there must be one or two administrative steps for the matter to be made public. It is not just receiving the letter from the President; there are processes that go around receiving communication from the President at the point at which it should be announced.
"So, let's see what happens tomorrow or next tomorrow. I think we shall surely get an an­swer. I want to assure you that if that supplementary budget comes to the Senate, I am sure we will do justice to it."
Also, in a separate interview, a third-term member of the Sen­ate and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Drug and Narcot­ics, Senator Joshua Lidani, on the N413 billion subsidy payment by the Presidency, said no such letter has come to the Senate.
He wondered why there was a delay in transmitting such a sen­sitive matter to the National As­sembly for appropriation by way of a supplementary budget since such money was not captured in the 2015 Budget.
"We don't delay action on such communication from the Presi­dent and if the leadership of the Senate has received such a letter from President Buhari, it would have read it to the hearing of the Senators at plenary," Lidani said.
149 trucks dispatched in FCT, says DPR
Meanwhile, the Department of Petroleum Resources has said that a total of 149 trucks of petrol have been dispatched to the Fed­eral Capital Territory (FCT) and its environs.
Queues at filling stations have grown steadily in the metropo­lis since the distribution hitches started about a week ago in Abuja.
The Head, Public Relations, of the Abuja Zone of DPR, Moham­med Saidu, said in a statement that the distribution brought the total amount of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) supplied to Abuja between Monday and Tuesday to 294 trucks.
The DPR boss linked the re­surgence of fuel queues in some states of the country to the activ­ities of unscrupulous marketers who divert petroleum products to other sources apart from dis­pensing pumps at filling stations at the pump price of N87 per litre.
Also, the Chairman of Niger State chapter of the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Comrade Adamu Ere­na, has said that the Federal Gov­ernment must show the political will if it must arrest the fuel scar­city because his members are in business to make gains and can­not sell their products at a loss.
According to him, the steps taken by the DPR to continue to seal filling stations belonging to IPMAN members cannot solve the problem. Rather, he said the government must come up with a holistic approach that will keep all stakeholders in business.