FG responsible for oil sector rot

The Deputy National Chairman, Petroleum Tankers Drivers of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Chief Salmon Oladiti, has said that the protests which attended the last fuel subsidy removal protests could have been prevented if the Federal Government had been alive to its responsibilities.Specifically, he argued that had the government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo kept its promises on uninterrupted power supply to the masses as a direct benefit of the colossal amount of N18 billion spent on the sector, the last strike by the organised labour would not have happened.Oladiti, who spoke while addressing journalists in Ibadan on Wednesday, berated the non-fulfilment of the high-sounding promises of that administration, which, he said, was responsible for the wild demonstrations and protests of the last strike.According to him, 'it is unfortunate that the Federal Government is accusing the marketers for the problem in the downstream sector. For instance, the country has storage facilities at Mosinmi, Ibadan, Ejigbo and Ilorin to store petroleum products, but rather than using it, they use private depots belonging to their political friends. This is costly and, therefore, not ideal in business. For 15 years, they divert kerosene to private depots costing double the normal price.'He recalled how the subsidy on diesel the Obasanjo administration pledged to turn around the nation's infrastructure with subsidy removed from diesel, but failed to achieve the target.'Throughout Obasanjo's regime,' he said further,' none of the NNPC depots in South-West zone up till Ilorin, was able to receive kerosene for onward distribution to the consuming masses. But instead, private individuals and cronies of the former regimes were diverting such to their private depots and sell at exorbitant rates to the unsuspecting masses.
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