'Ex-NNPC GMDs are enemies of Nigeria', senator says

intern

September 6, 2016 10:00 AM

Last week, the former bosses advised the government to upwardly review the pump price of petrol.

Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi

All former Group Managing Directors (GMDs) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who suggested a hike in the pump price of petrol to the government, should be regarded as "enemies of Nigeria", according to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi.

Arising from a meeting with the current GMD of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru last week, the former bosses of the state run oil firm advised the government to upwardly review the pump price of petrol.

They stated that the N145 per liter for the product was no longer sustainable, citing forex shortage, exchange rate and competition in the downstream sector.

In his reaction, Sen Abdullahi said if the former NNPC bosses had been up to their responsibilities, Nigeria wouldn't be importing refined petrol today.

"The NNPC as an institution was expected to be the live-wire of this nation. As we have all known, refineries that we have in Nigeria have not been functional because if they had been functional and if that institution had been up and doing in tandem with its peers in other countries that have similar resource endowment like ours under the directorship of these former GMDs, we wouldn’t have been in this mess", the Senator said.

Sen Abdullahi also warned the government against taking the proposal of the ex-NNPC GMDs on-board.

“All the problems we are having is as result of what all these people who have assembled now to be the wise men and to tell us what should be done, caused.

"They do not have the moral standpoint to even advise us on what to do because they had a hand in it.

"I cannot see how you can solve a problem under the same condition that created it. They are more or less acting as enemies of the people and even the government they are advising.

“As far as I am concerned, maybe they were sent to destroy this government and as far as I am concerned we would not allow them to do that”.

The Buhari-led government has since denied it is contemplating a fuel price hike.

Minister of state for petroleum resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, told journalists at the State House on Monday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, that "there'll be nothing" like a fuel price hike.

“Have you seen any memo to that effect?’’ the Minister asked rhetorically.

“There is nothing like that,” he said.

Baru who accompanied Kachikwu to the meeting with the President, spoke in a similar vein.

NNPC spokesperson, Mallam Garba-Deen Mohammed, had earlier told journalists that what the former oil chiefs put forward was merely an advice which the government could reject or adopt.

The early signs are that the proposition has been flatly rejected.

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