Fuel Scarcity: Reps Committee Frown At Middlemen Activities
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources, Downstream, Hon Ikenga Ugochinyere and his Midstream counterpart, Henry Okojie have strongly frowned at the activities of middlemen who have taken advantage of the short disruption of supply of Fuel to maximize profit and generate inordinate gain for themselves, to the detriment of the Nigeria people.
The lawmakers expressed reservation while addressing journalists in Abuja, Wednesday. They said, their committees have engaged extensively with stakeholders with a view to ascertaining the cause of the resurgence of the fuel queues in petrol stations across the country.
The lawmakers agreed that, the cause of the disruption of fuel supply was the logistics issue around the marine shuttle vessels, which was to move products to marketers, but could not at a time. They are surprised that the situation is still causing distribution even when the logistic challenge had been resolved.
According to them, the country has a storage of over 1.5 billion litres which can last the citizens for over 30 days and with More products on the sea and arriving there should any problem with distribution.
They lawmakers however urged Nigerians not to engage in panic buying, nor be enmeshed in unnecessary rush to buy products.
The lawmakers however reiterated their commitment to work with the NNPCL, NMDPRA, PETROAN, NARTO and other key stakeholders in the distribution chain, towards finding a sustainable solution in ensuring that the country do not run into such avoidable disruptions in the near future, which can hamper economic activities.