Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has been urged to step down by fifteen MPs acting on behalf of The Economy Rescue Group.
The organization claimed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration’s problems were caused by mismanagement at the NNPCL under Kyari’s direction.
The lawmakers insisted that Kyari be suspended pending the conclusion of the House of Representatives’ joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream and Midstream) forensic investigation into the state of the national oil company and the downstream and midstream sectors as a whole.
The statement was signed in Abuja by the group’s leader, Hon. Esosa Iyawe, a lawmaker representing Oredo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
In order to prevent any acts of sabotage, the lawmakers accused the CEO of NNPCL and other corporate management staff of undermining Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda through corruption and incompetence.
They demanded that the executives be shown the way out until the conclusion of the forensic investigation conducted by the House of Representatives through the Downstream and Midstream joint Committee.
While supporting the House’s forensic investigation into a number of issues, including the influx of contaminated products into the nation, the indiscriminate granting of licenses, the presence of middlemen in trading, and the lack of laboratories to check products, the group advised President Tinubu to use the big stick and suspend the top NNPCL officials until the investigation is finished.
“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 regret.
“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.”
The parliamentarians claim that the economy cannot expand while Kyari is in charge of all of these things.
“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,” they added.
Iyawe recently made a motion in the house requesting that the CEO of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, be placed on leave by the Federal Government while his comments on the quality of petroleum products at the Dangote Refinery be looked into.
