A Lagos-based anti-corruption agency, Integrity Watch has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately relieve the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr Mele Kyari, of his duties following the hardship imposed on the citizens arising from hike in petroleum products prices.
The organization said the suffering of Nigerians is becoming exacerbated and harrowing on daily basis as prices of fuel also known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and diesel are getting out of reach of the common man.
In a statement issued, the National Coordinator of Integrity Watch, Ebenezer Bamgbose, queried why the nation’s four refineries could not produce a single litre of fuel since Kyari took over the mantle of leadership.
He said rather than showing remorse and resign honourably having failed the Federal Government and Nigerian masses, Kyari has started lobbying Mr President for a renewal and extension of his ‘inglorious tenure’.
According to Bamgbose, “since June 2019 when his appointment as the GMD NNPC was confirmed by former President Muhammadu Buhari, reports say Mr Kyari has not been able to make any of the nation’s refinery to work.
“Comically, the oil and gas industry key players who preferred anonymity claimed that under Kyari’s watch, not a single litre of oil has been refined locally despite huge spending on the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM).
“Yet the NNPCL maintains about 3,500 workforce who regularly receive salaries and other benefits without anything to show for the Federal Government’s huge budgetary commitment to the Company.
“The GMD and his team of management members and the so-called large workforce have not added value to the company, let alone the government or the Nigerian masses. Or how do you measure the performance rating of a company and workforce of 3,500 that received so much support and yet performed poorly?
“All we can see is nepotism, favoritism, undue negligence and humongous corruption. it’s all sound and fury signifying nothing and it is scam everywhere. Kyari must go and the workforce must be restructured for better performance.
“The fuel subsidy is not the only problem of Nigeria, the official corruption is legendary at the NNPCL. For instance, what stops NNPCL from siting mega stations at all our border points for those the government claimed were benefiting from oil subsidy money to patronize and get our fuel easily?
“Those working in cahoot with Mele Kyari for an extension of tenure for the GMD do not mean well for this nation and the President must be wary of these elements.
“Should we continue like this, Nigeria won’t work and the suffering of its masses would continue. And if refinery is not working, the fuel increase would continue and our people would be dying by installments,” Bamgbose lamented.
