A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Senator representing Zamfara Central, Mr. Kabir Marafa, has warned that if marketers are not paid the outstanding of N800 billion subsidy claims, the enemies of the present administration may cause problems that would result in the return of fuel queues.
Marafa, who chairs Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), said this while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the weekend.
“There has been some disquiet in the industry regarding marketers’ payment with Ministry of Finance, DMO and the Central Bank, which we feel if not carefully handled, some enemies of the administration might bring about technical issues that could lead to queues on the line.
“Government has provided enormous quantities of petroleum products across the country that can last the country up to six months through NNPC. So, some people are not too happy about it and they want to sabotage the efforts of the government.
“I’m the chairman and the President being the Minister of Petroleum Resources, I came to share some information and tap on his versatile experience in the industry as a former Minister of Petroleum Resources forty years ago, so there is abundant experience there,” he said.
On the threat to shut down deports across the country, Marafa said technicalities on the payment were being discussed to prevent that from happening.
“We are now talking of technicalities, there is fuel in the country, on our seas, in our depots all across the country. But there are some technicalities now regarding payment of subsidies, forex differentials and interest, which this government inherited. They are not a creation of this government.
“However, government is a continuum and when the President came in he was confronted with it and he agreed and said fine I have stopped subsidy but since there are claims, we will look into it and pay,” he said.
The senator also told journalists he also discussed political situation in Zamfara state with the President.
He said all the actors are in court to resolve the contentious issues that made the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept APC candidates from the state for the 2019 election.
“We are still on. We are in court and hopefully we believe in the next couple of weeks, maybe two weeks from now, the courts will provide a way forward. We are on our way to an amicable resolution of the problems,” he said.
