The Nigerian House of Representatives on Wednesday summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,NNPC, Maikanti Baru over illegal payment of fuel subsidy to the tune of N300 billion.
The house accuses the two officials of reintroducing subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) without the approval of the National Assembly.
The green chamber described the act as an “illegality”.
A motion moved by a member from Kogi State, Karimi Sunday, on the floor of the House, alleged that the NNPC spent “over N300billion” on subsidy from January 2017 to December of the same year.
According to the lawmaker, in the first three months of the year, the NNPC had already recorded an “under recovery” of N46.86bn.
“This trend continued at an increasing rate all through 2017.
“As of December, over N300bn had been expended on petrol subsidy for 2017 alone. This trend continues till date,” he added.
Mr. Sunday reminded his colleagues that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Kachikwu had admitted in December 2017 that the Federal Government, through the NNPC, was paying N26 on each litre of petrol to make up the difference between the landing cost of N171 and the official pump price of N145.
“This happened despite the fact that the Executive said that it had removed subsidy.
“Besides, there was no parliamentary approval for subsidy payment in the 2017 Appropriation Act.”
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