A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has called on the federal government to get to the root of the importation of adulterated petrol into Nigeria and prosecute whosoever is found guilty.
The coalition comprising of the Competent Governance For Accountability And Civic Trust, Global Gender Safety and Moral Development and others made the call in a statement jointly signed by Godwin Erheriene and Omoba Micheal in Abuja on Monday.
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The CSOs pointed out that an independent body should be charged with the responsibility of investigating the issue, insisting that the NNPC can not be a judge over an issue it is involved in.
“If the government wants to get to the root of it, an independent body should be set up to look into the causative factors of scarcity in order to exonerate the innocent one and punish the guilty.
“To solve a puzzle, one must give in to logic. The ongoing brouhaha between NNPC and the marketers is a reflection of a judge presiding over his own case.
“Now let’s take a logical and objective look into the fuel scarcity so that the real culprits behind the adulteration of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) will be fished out.
“Prior to this fuel scarcity, PMS products had always met the required specification of NNPC.
“Then suddenly, methanol is now being tested. Obviously, something is not right.
“NNPC has disclosed that MRS, Oando, Duke Oil, and consortium Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U imported the adulterated fuel that is responsible for the present fuel scarcity being experienced.
“The aforementioned companies shipped the fuel to Nigeria from Antwerp-Belgium.
“NNPC is subliminally pushing the narrative that the marketers are behind the adulteration and does not want to accept the possibility that the adulteration can perhaps be accredited to the foreign company.
“NNPC is very and extremely certain that it is impossible because of a long-standing knowledge on the specifications of NNPC and deliberately ignoring the fact that the indigenous company also have the integrity to hold.
“Same way NNPC is certain that the Belgian company followed the specifications is the way the indigenous companies are attesting to upholding the required specification without any form of adulteration.
“They have been importing the product into the country for quite some time now and nothing of such has ever happened.
“It will interest the public to know that amongst the companies supposedly accuse of adulteration, Duke oil is a subsidiary of NNPC. This means that NNPC is also an accomplice to the adulteration of the fuel because the presence of methanol was in all the cargoes including that of their subsidiary,” it said.
The CSOs also queried that the over N200billion to be used to mop up the quarantined PMS by NNPC is too huge, insinuating that something might be going on somewhere that Nigerians are not aware of.
The coalition queried: “Did the imported PMS meet NNPC specifications? This question is important because the specifications are given to the suppliers both at the loading port and discharging port here in Nigeria.
“Were the products duly tested and cleared by international cargoes inspectors? If the answer to the above is yes, then why was the discharging of these products from the mother vessel into daughter vessels and finally discharging same to the various depots directed by NNPC?”
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