President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that “producers and providers” of the off-spec petrol imported into the country must be held accountable.
The president issued the directive in a statement issued on Thursday by Garba Shehu, his senior special assistant on media and publicity.
According to the president, the persons involved must “be held accountable for substandard services and or products sold by them”.
The president also directed the relevant government agencies to “take every step in line with the laws of the country to ensure the respect and protection of consumers against market abuses and social injustices”.
Meanwhile, house of representatives has also asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to suspend the companies involved in the importation of methanol-blended petrol.
The lower legislative chamber also asked the NNPC to provide the names of the companies to its committee for investigation.
The resolution was passed during the plenary session on Thursday following the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Mohammed Monguno.
Mele Kyari, group managing director of the NNPC Limited, had said MRS, Oando, Emadeb Consortium, and Duke Oil, a subsidiary of the NNPC, imported the methanol-blended petrol.
Contributing to the motion, Onofiok Luke, a lawmaker from Akwa Ibom state, said NNPC Limited should be held responsible for the importation of adulterated fuel.
Luke asked the parliament to take action on the matter to ensure and restore the confidence of Nigerians.
Toby Okechukwu, the deputy minority leader, said the NNPC limited has not done due diligence in its duty as a regulatory agency (sic). He said the parliament had conducted several investigations on the infraction committed by the NNPC limited.
“What we have seen is that this parliament has been hired by NNPC to work for it. So many investigations have been carried out by the parliament,” he said.
“The due diligence to import appropriate petroleum products has become a war.”
The legislator said Nigerians that have fallen victims to the adulterated products should be compensated, adding that NNPC and its agencies which have not been contributing to the federation account has failed in their purpose.
The motion was unanimously adopted when it was put to a voice vote by Idris Wase, deputy speaker of the house.
The lawmakers subsequently mandated its “committee on petroleum downstream to ascertain whether the Nigerian specification concerning importation, distribution and dispensing of the alleged toxic petrol in Nigeria from January till date complies with international standards”.
They also asked the committee to “investigate the roles played by the NNPC limited, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian navy, any other government regulatory agencies, limited liabilities companies and individuals in the unfortunate episode”.
