Senate gives Buhari 2 weeks to end fuel scarcity

‎The senate committee on petroleum (downstream) has mandated “the minister of petroleum resources… to stop this fuel scarcity in two weeks”.

Uche Ekwunife, chairman of the committee, gave the charge on Thursday during a meeting with stakeholders in the oil industry at the national assembly complex in Abuja.

‎“We are giving a target now,we don’t wan’t to know how you would achieve it.Nigerians want to see an end to this fuel scarcity‎,” she said.

“We are mandating the minister of petroleum resources,the permanent secretary and heads of agencies to put an end to this.”‎

‎‎On Tuesday, the upper legislative chamber‎ had moved to end the scarcity of fuel by mandating its committee on petroleum downstream to examine all issues associated with the problem, and determine how the legislature could collaborate with the executive arm of government to bring a lasting solution to the malady.

In a motion sponsored ‎Barau Jibrin (Kano north), and co-sponsored by 28 senators, the lawmaker observed that fuel scarcity had remained a recurring problem in the country, and added that it was time to put a stop to the trend.

Debating the motion, Gbenga Ashafa, an All Progressives Congress (APC) senator from Lagos state, urged his colleagues to give their approval to the N465bn supplementary budget of President Muhammadu Buhari so that subsidy claims could be settled, and Nigerians eased from hardship.

‎However, Eyinnaya Abaribe, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senator from Abia state, countered his prayer, saying that the previous PDP federal government was criticised for paying billions of naira as subsidy on fuel to oil marketers yet the current APC government was doing the same thing.

He urged the senate to summon President Muhammadu Buhari, who he described as the “senior minister of petroleum”, to explain the reason for the scarcity of petrol.

This led to an argument between lawmakers of the PDP and their APC counterparts.

‎The senate ended debate with Senate President Bukola Saraki directing the committee on petroleum downstream to investigate the problem and submit its report in two weeks‎.