By Olanrewaju Ajao The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed has put the blame of the lingering fuel scarcity on the doorstep of the immediate past administration.
The fuel situation has gone from bad to worse even after subsidy arrears were recently paid to oil marketers.
Speaking to State House Correspondents today after a meeting of the Federal Executive Council( FEC) , Mohammed said the present situation is due to the inability of the last administration to make adequate provision for fuel subsidy.
Mohammed said the present administration made sure that unlike before when the marketers used to import the major percentage of the fuel, NNPC has been involved in importation, because some of the marketers had stopped importing for a some months
He further explained that Buhari administration inherited the vandalisation of the pipelines which has made it impossible to even transport the fuel.
According to him, the problem had nothing to do with non-availability of the product butdistribution, because of pipelines that have been vandalised and the gridlock in Lagos.
He added that It takes about 5 days for anybody to take fuel with tanker in Lagos and as at two days ago this matter had been resolved.
“What I will be telling Nigerians is that what we met on ground is such that we are paying for the sins of the last administration. I am being very serious. You remember that about two weeks ago, we had to go to the National Assembly for a supplementary budget of N674 billion.
“Of that figure, N522billion was for arrears of fuel subsidy which was incurred as far back as August last year. One of the reasons for the fuel scarcity was the inability of the last government to make
adequate provision for fuel subsidy. We do face some other logistic problems but majorly we are paying for the sins of the last administration .”
“The solution is what you have seen us doing. The first thing we have done now is to make sure that unlike before when the marketers used to import the major percentage of the fuel. NNPC has been involved in importation, because some of the marketers had stopped importing for a couple of months.”
“If you see any fuel anywhere today, it is imported by the NNPC. We also inherited the vandalisation of the pipelines which has made it impossible for us to even transport the fuel. In tanks today we have 14 days reserve and off tank we have 10 days reserve.
“The issue is not non-availability of the product it is the distribution, because of pipelines that have been vandalised and the gridlock in Lagos. It takes about 5 days for anybody to take fuel with tanker in Lagos. As at two days ago this matter has being resolved. The Mosinmi pipeline has been secured and it has led to the improvement in the distribution,” he said.
