Lawmakers of the House of Representatives have rejected the report of its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) which investigated the importation of adulterated Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) into Nigeria.
The House noted that the report failed to hold anybody or organization responsible for the development or recommend sanctions whatsoever.
The committee had simply recommended that the Honourable Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, should initiate the adoption of 2017 PMS Standard (NIS 116:2017) as approved by the Standards Organization of Nigeria for future importation of the product into the country; and should expedite action for completion of the rehabilitation work of the three major refineries at Warri, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna to boost local refining and reduce over-dependence on imported petrol.
The committee also recommended that the the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Ltd and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NDPRA) should procure tracking devices to monitor truck movements across the country.
A member of the committee, Hon. Alex Egbonna, who presented the report on behalf of the Chairman, Abdullahi Gaya, said the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, and the importers were invited and questioned by the panel.
“We discovered that the crisis was actually not because of the suppliers or the companies but some major problems. We are here to present the report to the House.”
The Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu, however, criticized the report as failing to address the main issues for which the House resolved to carry out the probe.
“When you see what is being recommended, I know that the Standards Organization of Nigeria is responsible, across the board, for the quality and standard of products. But we should also know that the DPR and certain protocols are in the refineries with regard to testing of the quality of products, whether they meet specifications. Whether SON is responsible for this is another matter.
“I have not seen in the entire report and recommendations what should happen to the companies that imported the fake products, because what we are talking about is adulterated products. And the refineries, the one (in Port Harcourt) that we have allocated $1.5bn, which has been awarded, there should be a status report on it.
“I think they should tell us the entire gamut of their investigation; what they actually did; because we want to solve the problem, we are not looking just to cross over. The reason and term of the motion are the adulterated products. The recommendations do not speak to that.”
Another lawmaker, Hon. Ajibola Muraina expressed surprise given that the terms of reference which the House gave to the Committee were very specific.
“Looking at the recommendations, one will see that the terms of reference have largely not been addressed at all. And these are specific terms that ought to be addressed specifically so that we can move to the future with the hope that we will not have a recurrence of this problem again,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Wase, in his ruling, asked the committee to go back and comply with its terms of reference. “I think the two submissions are very apt. They captured most of the views on what should be done. It is just to ask them to go back and do the work,” Wase said.
By Chidi Ekpewerechi
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