LAGOS FEBRUARY 17TH (URHOBOTODAY)-The Niger Delta Youth Council (NDYC) has urged the Federal Government to take decisive action over importation of contaminated fuel which has resulted to scarcity of the product being experienced in the country and subsequent damage done to vehicles.
The NDYC in a statement signed by its national Coordinator, Engr. Jator Abido and made available to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday argues that the economic loss and damage caused by the action was too grievous to let go.
Consequently, the NDYC wants the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited sacked as well as withdrawal of Duke Oil limited, a company believed to have imported the product.
“It is unacceptable that the four companies accused by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, of importing substandard petrol have all in writing denied the allegation, thus creating more confusion in the drive to unmask shippers of the bad fuel. In separate statements, the four companies – MRS, Emadeb, Brittania-U and Oando – vehemently denied importing the high methanol petrol that is unacceptable in Nigeria.
“Only Duke Oil, NNPC’s trading arm, also engaged in the Direct-Sale-Direct-Purchase arrangement with NNPC, has been mute about the allegation of importing the bad fuel. The NNPC silence over the rebuttal by the companies it accused of impoting the bad product subsequently has thus created the impression that the duo of NNPC and Duke Oil are culpable.
“We demand that the NNPC management and Duke Oil come clear of the havoc caused by this act of recklessness that has not only caused economic losses and hardship but has also put lives and businesses of Nigerians at risk.
“The Federal Government must take necessary steps to ensure that owners of vehicles damaged as a result of consuming the contaminated fuel are adequately compensated to quell their sufferings. This issue has exposed a lot of inadequacies in the petroleum supply chain and everything must be done to ensure that the sector is sanitised.
“Where was the NMDPRA when this dirty fuel arrived on the high sea, landed at the Atlas Cove, discharged into smaller vessels to depots and finally made it to the market without detection by the agency that ought to be up and doing as a new creation of the law?
“What has happened is clearly an act of stoppage by off-spec petrol sales by marketers resulting in the disruption of petrol supply chain and attendant scarcity and queues in some parts of the country, particularly Abuja.