Fuel crisis: Unified Nigerian youths threaten mass protest if….
(This was number a motorist was given while quueing up for petrol at a filling station recently)
following the persistent fuel scarcity across the country, a pressure group, Unified Nigerian Youth Forum, (UNYF) on Wednesday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately remove the Minister of Petroleum (State) Ibe Kachuku, Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mai Kanti Baru and others from office.
In a statement made available to newsmen in Kaduna, President of the group, Abdulsalam Muhammed Kazeem called on President Buhari to overhaul the entire NNPC managment, “by immediately sack the Minister of State Petroleum, Ibe Kachuku, Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mai Kanti Baru and the Head, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Director General.”
The forum noted that, the ongoing hardship on Nigerians following the current fuel scarcity, was taking a different toll on nation’s economy as people now use their productive time to look and queue for fuel to power their vehicles and equipment.
Muhammed said, “the unwillingness of those saddle with the responsibilities of importing, monitoring and distribution of petroleum products have further exposed the lack of administrative acumen and weakness by the appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It is on record that, NNPC, which is saddle with the responsibility of dispensing fuel product, has allegedly paid billions of naira for subsidy, yet Nigerians keep battling with scarcity for the past three months, the longest in the history of this nation.
“NNPC, has continuously lied to Nigerians about the availability of petroleum product (invisible products). Why is there scarcity of PMS? Strangely, petrol is available in every other state where it is criminally sold at N220 per litre above the approved pump price of N145 per litre except in Abuja and Lagos, the only two states the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) is practically in existence.
“NNPC, should tell Nigerians the whole truth about the present situation because these stories of diversion, sabotage by depot owners and the cabal theory can no longer hold up with the suffering masses.
“It takes two to three days for a motorcycle rider (okada man) to access just four litre of PMS while private, commercial bus drivers and industries (both local and internal) can’t event even access it at any cost, imaging the economic effect of this scarcity on all sectors of our economy.
“For how long will all these continue. We appeal to Mr President to use his vast experience in the Oil and Gas sector to end the scarcity now, having serve previously in different capacity and succeeded, why is he finding it difficult to put in to practice the experience he has acquired over the years.
The group however threatened mass protest if President Buhari failed to sack those responsible for non-availability of the product or make it available within 7 working days.