Subsidy probe: Ministers, others shun panel, Gbajabiamila fumes

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has condemned the non-appearance of top officials of the Federal Government before the Ad Hoc Committee on the Volume of Fuel Consumed Daily in Nigeria at its investigative hearing in Abuja on Tuesday.

Gbajabiamila particularly called out the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva; Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; and the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (formerly Group Managing Director of the defunct Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation), Melee Kyari; as well as the Managing Director of Petroleum Pipeline Marketing Company, Isiaku Abdullahi, among others.

Consequently, the committee, chaired by Abdulkadir Abdullahi, summoned the GMD of the NNPC; MD of the PPMC; Accountant-General of the Federation; the CBN governor; Minister of State and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources; Minister of Finance and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance.

The Speaker, who was represented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Peter Akpatason, was miffed by the fact that most of the critical stakeholders were absent from the hearing while those sent to represent a few of them were officials whose cadres were lower than those required to answer questions on behalf of their organisations.

The Speaker also expressed his worry that their absence could be seen as an attempt to frustrate the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has explained why it cannot remove subsidies on the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, at this time.

Minister of Communication and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who spoke during an exclusive interview with Reuters in London, said many other nations were introducing measures to help citizens cope with high oil energy prices, hence Africa’s most populous country could not be an exception.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil exporter but still has to import almost all its fuel needs due to a lack of refining capacity. The Federal Government shelved plans to abolish fuel subsidies earlier this year, a move that raised concerns with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).