The Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari has been accused of undermining the economic policy of the President Bola Tinubu-led government.
The allegation was levelled at Kyari by fifteen members of House of Representatives under the aegis of The Economy Rescue Group.
The group let loose a stream of bitter criticism that my burn the NNPCL boss like acid via a statement signed by their leader, Hon Esosa Iyawe, lawmaker representing Oredo Federal Constituency in which Kyari was asked to resign or be suspended by the President.
“We the 15 concerned lawmakers state unequivocally that the woes of the Oil and Gas sector in the President Bola Ahmed- led administration are caused mainly by the failures and mismanagement of the NNPLC under Kyari’s management. Therefore, for this to be fixed, they should honourably resign,” the lawmaker said.
It reads further: “In an event they fail to step down on their own, the President should not hesitate to suspend them pending the investigation embarked upon the House of Representatives through its joint Committee on Petroleum: Downstream and Midstream.
“The petroleum sector remains the backbone of the nation’s economy and the allegations uncovered by the House which necessitated the forensic investigation are astounding and astonishing. They have to do with the presence of middlemen in trading, the indiscriminate issuance of licenses, the unavailability of laboratories to check adulterated products, the influx of adulterated products into the country, the allegation of non-domestication of profits realised from crude marketing sales in local banks, and other anomalies.
“Unfair subsidisation of PMS and other petroleum products which negatively affects competitiveness in the sector, racketeering and favouritism in the Pro Forma Invoice System (PFI) regime, indiscriminate issuance of licenses and importation of refined petroleum products.
“Return of PMS price intervention with its impact on domestic market, product unavailability to marketers from NNPC Retail. Endless shifting of timelines for refinery rehabilitation, the nefarious activities at petrol depot which have affected product distribution and caused scarcity and the use of middlemen in trading which has negatively affected domestic crude supply.
“It is therefore, obvious that the NNPCL management is out to undermine and is already undermining the Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda with corruption, incompetence and they must be suspended to give room for unhindered probe.”
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