Bad Fuel: Reps Summon Duke Oil, MRS, Oando Others

The House of Representatives’ Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) has summoned the suppliers of the adulterated Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) into the country.

Trixx NG reports that the adulterated fuel has caused a crisis in the nation’s fuel supply chain with long queues at fuel stations in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and many other states nationwide, price of fuel jumping to over N300 to increased in transport fares and soared prices of foodstuff.

Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) had named the suppliers of the adulterated PMS as, MRS, Emadeb/Hyde/AY Maikifi/Brittania-U Consortium, Oando and Duke Oil.

The Chairman of the committee, Abdullahi Gaya, told the PUNCH weekend on Saturday that the suppliers are to answer queries from the panel on Tuesday (this week).

The committee had on Thursday grilled the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, during which he indicted Duke Oil, a subsidiary of the NNPC.

The lawmakers insisted that those responsible for the contaminated fuel must be sanctioned.

Earlier, the House on February 10 demanded a probe of key stakeholders allegedly involved in the matter.

The NNPC Ltd., and MRS Oil Nigeria Plc., had traded blame on the issue. Many representatives, who spoke on the development, called for sanctions against the Federal Government agencies and officials, who didn’t carry out due diligence before passing the product for onward distribution to marketers.

The House Majority Whip, Mohammed Monguno, moved a motion of urgent public importance, titled “Need to Investigate the Release and Sale of Adulterated Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in Petrol Stations Across Nigeria.”

Adopting the motion, the parliament mandated the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to “investigate the release of adulterated PMS across the country, with a view to ensuring that culprits are brought to book, as well as make recommendations towards curbing a reoccurrence of such incident.”

The lower legislative chamber also asked the committee to “ascertain whether the Nigerian specification concerning importation, distribution and dispensing of the alleged toxic petrol in Nigeria, from January till date, complied with international standards.”

Also, the lawmakers further asked the committee to “investigate the roles played by the NNPC, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Navy; any other government regulatory agencies, limited liabilities companies, and individuals in the unfortunate episode.”

Furthermore, the parliament asked the NNPC to suspend the four companies involved in the importation of the adulterated PMS.