The Senator representing Ogu
n East Senatorial district, Buruji Kashamu has urged the federal government to centralize allocation of petroleum products within the NNPC and depots in the country in order to end the acute fuel scarcity being experienced across the country.
Kashamu, who spoke with journalists shortly after a general meeting with members of the Omo-Ilu Foundation and empowerment programme held at the Omo-Ilu Foundation Complex, Ijebu-Igbo in Ijebu North local government area of Ogun state, attributed the current fuel scarcity in the country to activities of the saboteurs within Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as well as the corrupt practices by the depot managers.
The federal lawmaker, who expressed disgust at the activities of the depot managers, said some managers at the depots sell products to independent petrol marketers at the official rate of N77, while they ask them to pay additional N30 into special private account.
This, he said, has made it difficult for the retailers to sell the product to consumers at the official pump price at N86.50k.
He added that marketers who fail to comply with the directive of the corrupt depot managers would not be allocated products, hence the irregularity in petroleum prices.
Kashamu, who maintained that President Buhari’s efforts to sanitise NNPC would record little success, said the Minister of Petroleum should take over the allocation of PMS and allied products in order to arrest the corrupt situation in the depots.
“Without doubt, the Minister of Petroleum should take over the allocation and distribution of products in NNPC depots and other depots in the country. The corrupt practices being undertaken by the depot managers are alarming and something must be done to address the situation.
“President Buhari should focus his searchlight on the goings-on in our depots. There are serious under-the-table dealings; it is only marketers that are ready to pay extra N30 into private account that are allocated products.
“This is bad for our economy and a kind of setback for the anti-corruption fight of President Buhari. These saboteurs must be fished out and prosecuted to proper sanitise the downstream sector.”
Kashamu however, appealed to the critics of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to give him the free hand to run the affairs of the country in the interest of all citizen.
He emphasised that rather than aiming at destroying Buhari’s administration, his government should be criticised constructively and without any malice.
He declared that now that Buhari has been elected the president of the country, the concern of all, particularly the opposition should be directed towards ensuring that the president ends corruption, rebuild the economy as well as re-position the country regardless of any political affiliation.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is on course. Why it looks as if there are some dislocations is because of the blockage of lose funds and sources of financial leakages in the system. I am persuaded that in a short while things will pick up. Nigerians should not allow politicians to deceive them.
“We tend to play politics with everything. We forget that the elections or campaigns are over. Now, we have a government in place. We should rise above selfish and narrow partisan interest and join hands to build our country by offering constructive advice just as some senior citizens like Prof. Wole Soyinka and Chief Emeka Anyaoku have done. We have no other country than Nigeria.
“These eminent Nigerians have suggested that the Federal Government should organise a national economic summit and tap from the wealth of experience of the experts. Those are the kind of advice anyone that means well should give and not play politics with everything and pretend as if we are better when we are not.
“I challenge those who are fond of mindlessly criticising the President to show me a proof of what they have done to improve the economy of their states. Is the allocation from the Federation Account not the mainstay source of their states’ revenue? How tolerant are they of the opposition in their states? So, if they pull down the Federal Government, don’t they know that they would have also taken their states and their people back by several years? They should know that it is easier to destroy than to build.”
Speaking earlier during the general meeting cum empowerment where cars, buses and motorcycles were distributed to various beneficiaries., the PDP’s National Auditor, Alhaji Fatai Adeyanju declared that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has affirmed Kashamu as the leader of the party in Ogun state.
Adeyanju, while addressing party members also said that the PDP constitution which had been amended had given the leadership of the party in any state to holder of the highest political office from that state, stressing that since Kashamu is the Senator, he automatically leads the party to conduct all the congresses of the party scheduled to hold in the next few months.
DAILY TIMES
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