Reps to inspect seized oil vessels at NPA

The House of Representatives ad hoc committee on volume of fuel consumed daily in the country, says it will inspect oil vessels seized by the Nigeria Navy that are at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

The committee said this was due to the discrepancies in the number of seized oil vessels by the NPA.

Rep. Abdulkadiri Abdullahi, Chairman of the committee, revealed this in Abuja on Wednesday when the NPA, led by Mr Onari Brown, the Executive Director, Marine and Operation, appeared before it.

Abdullahi queried the exclusion of the volume of fuel consumed daily in the report presented by the NPA, saying the committee saw it as a deliberate attempt.

He said the NPA needed to include date and the time the vessel arrived, stressing that the committee would get a suitable date for an oversight.

“We will pick up a time to do an oversight for this because we see discrepancies in what NPA is saying.

“If all the vessels arrested are being brought to you, we need to identify and see them, the Nigeria Navy told us that all seized vessels are dropped in your premises,” Abdullahi said.

He urged the NPA to rearrange its presentation and include payment of charges it got quarterly and the volume.

Abdullahi explained that the committee had given the NPA until Oct. 17 to reappear before it for further investigation, while urging the NPA to come with all records of payment to the NNPC.

Earlier, Brown said he would not in anyway hide information from the committee, adding: “I will never in any way disrespect this house. I was once a member and I know the implication of hiding information.”

He said not showing the record of fuel consumed daily in the document presented was an error and it would be corrected, stressing that no imported products came to the country without the knowledge of NPA.

“For imported product, there is no way a ship will come and we will not know.

“Only NNPC brings fuel to Nigeria as far as NPA is concerned. We do not recognise any other person and we do not deal with any other,” he said.

Also, the Ministry of Petroleum decried the lack of synergy among agencies under the ministry.

Mr Mohammed Mohammed, Director Downstream, said the problem of synergy was that the ministry did not get most of the information it needed from the agencies.

He said it was always difficult to interface with the agencies, adding that the ministry had not received updates on all the issues raised for it to be able to study them, including the mainstream.

“Maybe, the National Assembly will use its position to stress on synergy.

“I do not have the information of how much we are consuming, I am just a new person,” Mohammed said.

The committee, however, asked the ministry of petroleum to put its grievances down in writing.

The chairman of the committee recalled that the permanent secretary at the ministry was believed to have owned up that the country consumed 38 million liters daily.

Abdullahi asked the ministry to appear before the committee again on Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. for further investigations.