Corruption cannot fight corruption, CNPP replies Tinubu Campaigners over rot in NNPCL
*NNPCL headquarters, Abuja
(Nigeria) Conference of Nigeria Political
Parties, CNPP, has responded to the insinuations by a group associated with the
Presidential and Vice-presidential candidates of the ruling All Progressives
Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima that the CNPP was engaging in
what it described as “Cheap blackmail” for accusing the management of
incompetence and corruption.
The group, Tinubu Shettima Network, TSN, had
maligned the CNPP for calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to purge the Nigerian
National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, of an alleged corrupt management team if the
president wishes to end the perennial fuel scarcity in the country.
The group had said, “We expected CNPP to
blame OPEC quota on oil thieves and the recent fuel scarcity on marketers
rather NNPCL. Is it NNPC staff that are stealing oil. It is a cartel and the
security agencies and politicians are involved and this has been happening
since 1983 in this country?”
However, in a reply by the
CNPP Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, the CNPP noted that “In the first
place, the use of a group associated with Tinubu to respond to a glary case of
incompetence manifesting in fuel scarcity and unfortunate hike in pump price of
petrol is a confirmation of the CNPP position.”
The CNPP added that Tinubu is the only
politician in Nigeria who receives missing bullion vans according to his
spokesperson, Ayodele Adewale, who told the world that bullion vans pictured
in his house was missing road.
“So, when one Kailani Muhammad, an
associate of Tinubu speaks on corruption related defence, no citizen can take
him seriously. The corrupt will most likely defend the corrupt.
“The CNPP, as the umbrella association of
registered political parties and political associations in Nigeria, reiterates
that setting up a 14-man Committee by President Muhammadu Buhari to find
lasting solutions to the problems surrounding the supply and distribution chain
of petroleum products in the country was an open indictment of the management
team of the newly registered NNPC Limited.
“The Tinubu group had argued that since the
repositioning of NNPC, nobody or leader can deep hands in NNPC’s coffers to
steal money, but since the company was registered, unending fuel scarcity has
worsened hardship burdens Nigerians have to bear under the APC government.
“Some experts have revealed that Nigeria
losses about 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day to oil thieves while other
put the stolen crude oil at 80 percent of Nigeria's daily production.
“A vessel takes days to load crude oil and
if as much as 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day is stolen, NNPCL must be
complicit or incompetent.
“The NNPC has been accused by military
sources of providing valid papers for some vessels after the illegal vessels
have been arrested.
“That's why many experts have continued to
wonder aloud how vessels with stolen crude manage to beat the security agencies,
especially the navy, to enter the country to illegally take the crude without
connivance of NNPCL officials.
“Therefore, it is not out of blackmail for
CNPP to point accusing fingers on the NNPCL management over continued oil theft
and subsidy scam. It's out of genuine concern as the corrupt cannot effectively
fight corruption.
“This is why NNPC continued to defend
allegation that it has been inflating figures released for the daily
consumption of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) in the country.
“Recall that the Comptroller-General of
Customs, Col. Hameed Ali, and the state governors have at different times
alleged an inflation by almost 50 percent in the NNPC figures on petrol
consumption and demanded a probe of oil subsidy payments from 2015 till date to
no avail,” CNPP added.
Comments
Post a Comment