The House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva and others over their nonappearance at an investigation on Nigeria’s daily fuel consumption claims.
Chairman of the Adhoc Committee set up to investigate and ascertain the claims on Nigeria’s daily fuel consumption, Abdulkadir Sa’ad Abdullahi (APC, Bauchi) issued the summon after the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila and members of the committee expressed their displeasure when the heads and officials of key government agencies invited to the hearing failed to show up.
It could be recalled that, during the plenary on Thursday, 27th January 2022, the House considered a motion titled the “Need to ascertain the actual daily consumption of premium motor spirit (PMS) in Nigeria ‘’ sets up the ad hoc committee.
On his part, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila who was represented by the Deputy House Leader, Peter Akpatason (APC, Edo) said, the House was concerned over the lingering incidences of fuel scarcity causing significant loss of man hour and untold hardship suffered by Nigerians.
Gbajabiamila said, there is a need to address the controversies and concerns generated over the huge sums of money being paid as oil subsidies as well as the inaccuracy of data required for effective planning, supply and distribution of the premium motor spirit (PMS).
He said: “Only last week, the news was awash with the trading of blames between the NMDPRA and IPMAN over bridging the gap as a result of the rising cost of IPMAN’s operations, reportedly to the tune of over 70 billion naira in the interim, to address the lingering fuel scarcity.