By Musa Adamu
Abuja
Members of staff of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) yesterday staged a protest against what they called an imposition of executive secretary by external forces. They alleged that these external forces and entrenched interests were those keen on carrying out some questionable agenda through the PPPRA.
It would be recalled that when the federal government sacked Mr Farouk Ahmed as the head of the agency, he handed over to Moses Mbaba.
But barely a week later, another person, Mrs Sotonye Iyoyo, was introduced to the top management of the agency as new acting executive secretary of the agency.
Mrs Iyoyo is a staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and was introduced to senior officials of the PPPRA the acting permanent secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
But workers of the agency under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, (PENGASSAN) said they would not have any of other, threatening to continue their protest until the federal government comes out to settle the question of who is the real head of the agency between Mr. Mbaba and Mrs Iyoyo.
Addressing the workers in Abuja, Chairman of PENGASSAN, PPPRA branch, Mr. Victor Ononokpono, accused Mrs Iyoyo of immediately approving the payment of N3.4 billion subsidy claims to oil marketers under a questionable circumstances, since the payments in question were not due until the second quarter of 2016.
He also called on the anti-graft agencies to beam their searchlight on the PPPRA, as according to him, something is fishing.
