Opadokun Blames Fuel Crisis On Importation

Former Secretary of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) Ayo Opadokun yesterday decried the fuel scarcity in the country.

He blamed it on over dependence on importation of the premium motor spirit (PMS) into the country.

Opadokun spoke in Offa, Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State at a colloquium organised by the Galaxy Clique in honour of late Chief Josiah Sunday olawoyin.

The lecture was titled “Offa in Yoruba History”.

He suggested outright ban on importation of fuel into the country to put an end to perennial fuel crisis in the country.

Said he: “I must confess to you, I am extremely sad, weakened but I know it to be a cumulative effect of the prolonged misrule of the military over Nigeria. When Buhari was there as the military Head of State, the refineries that were built none has been since the one he built. The population was not as large as this, the vehicular movement was not  as large and wide as this. Since then what has happened, those who took over from him had totally ravaged Nigeria. What they needed do, they did not do. How on earth will a sane people in government construct the policy on home construction of domestic fuel on importation,.

“I was part of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) team that did sufficient research, we went abroad to Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Venezuela to fund out how much it costs to mine one litre of crude oil. Nigeria’s own is the most costly in the  world and then what are they doing now.

“Each time, the independent marketers go ahead to buy at world market so Nigerians are subjected to the vagaries of world market crude oil prices. What  has happened in the last three, four months, is that because the government was not willing to add more money to their profit, they said  they will not import.

“So the NNPC has been importing the totality of fuel being used in Nigeria. But because we have been used to a system where fuel tanks are being built independent marketers, they  made that unavailable and impossible for the distribution to go seamless. That is the cause of the crisis.”