The Nigerian 10th Senate began full business on Monday by announcing its plan to investigate the controversies surrounding petrol subsidy payments.
The probe will be carried out by an ad hoc committee on the downstream oil sector which is to be constituted.
It summoned Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) Mele Kyari to brief it on Federal Government’s under-recoveries.
The Senate said that the Adhoc Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), should, when constituted, constantly monitor, scrutinise and approve Midstream and Downstream spending of the NNPCL.
It urged the NNPCL, in conjunction with some IOCs, to form three different consortia and build three refineries to stabilise the nation’s oil market, give value to the Naira and stabilise the economy.
Also, yesterday, Kyari speaking at another forum in Abuja, said the oil giant spent N400 billion naira monthly paying petrol subsidies.
The Senate also called for a living wage for workers to cushion the effects of subsidy removal.
These resolutions were sequel to the consideration of a motion by Senator Ndubueze Chinwuba.
The motion was titled “Need to Investigate the controversial huge expenditure on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) under the subsidy/under recovery regime by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).”
In his lead debate, Ndubueze said the step taken by President Tinubu on subsidy was commendable.
He submitted that while within 10 years (2006 – 2015), the Federal Government through NNPCL, claimed N170 billion as under-recovery, it expended N843.121 billion on under-recovery between January 2018 and January 2019.
The lawmaker said: “Very worrisome is the expenses made on subsidy/under recovery by NNPCL during the period under review, particularly from January 2021 to June 2023 when N9.3 trillion was claimed to have been spent.
