State governors have accused the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of fraudulently doubling the
nation’s daily petrol consumption from about 30 million to 60 million litres.
The governors made this known on
Wednesday after a delegation led by Abdulaziz Yari, chairman of the Nigerian
Governors’ Forum (NGF) and governor of Zamfara state, met with Vice-President
Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa in Abuja.
At the meeting, the governors
demanded a thorough probe of oil subsidy payments from 2015 to date, while they
demanded that all petrol stations less than 10 kilometres to the nation’s
borders be immediately shut.
This followed NNPC’s excuse that
the sudden hike in petrol consumption is due to illegal export to neighbouring
countries.
As part of their demands, all
trucks transporting petroleum products must have tracking device installed in
order to monitor their movement to discharge stations and that NNPC must
henceforth clearly differentiate its earnings in sales as against taxes before
remitting funds to the federation account to avoid unexplained shortfalls.
In attendance at the meeting were
Udom Emmanuel , governor of Akwa Ibom state; Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo
state; Seriake Dickson, governor of Bayelsa state; Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna and
Atiku Bagudu, governor of Kebbi state.
Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance
and Udo Udoma, minister of budget and national planning, as well as a
representative of the NNPC GMD, also attended the meeting which ended at few
minutes after 8pm.
While briefing state house
correspondents at the end of the meeting, Yari said, “This is the second time
we are meeting with NNPC in respect of remittances into the federation account.
Governors and the federal government are not satisfied with the way remittances
are being made because there are so many questions raised on Nigeria, more
especially on the 425,000 barrel domestic and 180,000 barrel component of
Nigeria from the Joint Venture Partners,” he said.
“We met last week with NNPC and
we came and briefed our chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC). We
raised three issues: one, the issue of royalties. Each and every barrel taken
out of the country, there is either 17 or 24 percent of it as royalty and there
is 17 or 20 percent as tax.
“So, our main concern is that
(DPR) said that the NNPC is not remitting anything from the payment of royalty;
what they do is that they transmit direct from the NNPC to the federation
account, which is not allowed by the law.
“According the law that
established the DPR, section 196 of the Act, says all the royalty should be
paid to DPR and then transmitted to the federation account, which is not
happening.
“So, we discussed today and we
have sorted those ones out. The NNPC will not transmit to federation account
with clear distinction that this amount is for royalty and X amount is for
taxes, and X amount is profits from the sales. So we achieved that.”
The governors also raised
concerns over the joint venture cash call claims made by the NNPC and directed
that further payments for such should be suspended until the corporation gives
details of exactly how much has been paid since 2015.
“At the same time, NNPC is making
payment on behalf of Nigeria on cash-call contribution and also the NNPC is
making payment of cash call arrears of Nigeria’s contribution. But our main
concern is that in 2015, they said about $16.8 billion which is outstanding was
not paid by the last administration and they negotiated it down to $5.1 billion
according to them,” he said.
“What we said specifically is
that they should bring to us how much they have paid from 2015 to date and what
is outstanding. And we directed them to stop payment until the claims are
proven and then we can give further directives. That too was achieved.
“On the issue of cost recovery
otherwise called subsidy, it resurfaced again after the efforts of Mr.
President. Before now, the oil was $40 per barrel and now it is about $78 a
barrel, they are depending largely on importation. Therefore, the cost is higher
than what they are selling at the filling station and they need more money.
“When there was no cost recovery,
the NNPC clearly gave us the number of 33 and 35 million litres per day as the
consumption of Nigeria. But now with the new regime of cost recovery, NNPC is
claiming daily consumption of 60 and 65 million litres per day, which we
rejected and said no.
“So, many of our international
partners are saying that even if we are feeding Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and
Niger, we cannot consume more than 35 million litres per day. So, we are
wondering where the 60 million litres is coming from. So, we are trying to sort
that one out; that one is not yet resolved.
“But, we are now taking a very
hard decision; because NNPC said the reason why they were lifting 60 million
per day is because our borders are porous, we have taken the decision that any
filling station that is 10 kilometres on the border side should be closed by
DPR. And then, we will do re-certification according to the needs. Secondly, we
have directed the minister of finance in collaboration with the DPR and the
NNPC to put tracking devices on every truck in other to monitor where they are
discharging the fuel. That is because we are suspicious of the number; we
cannot confirm the difference from 30 million litres per day consumption to 60
and 65 million litres per day. So, these are our decisions on the NNPC.”
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