DPR alleges marketers' plot to exploit fuel subsidyAS the Federal Government and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) flex muscles over the proposed removal of petroleum subsidy, otherwise known as deregulation, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has exposed several ways the marketers have planned to abuse payment of the subsidy.Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has charged the National Assembly to churn out quality legislations to standardise the country's economy.The sharp practices, which have been found to be rampant among the influential marketing firms, are to enable them get multiple subsidies, and even collect subsidy without importing any product into the country.Some stakeholders in the industry are clamouring for removal of subsidy and that the money should be channelled to development of infrastructural facilities, but the NLC is opposing the move, claiming that it would lead to indiscriminate hike in fuel price.The Director of Department of Petroleum Resources, Andrew Obaje, who spoke at the yearly general meeting of the regulatory agency with the petroleum product depot owners in Lagos yesterday, said 'some of the marketers have developed schemes in cahoots with some tank farm owners and government officials to use genuine petroleum support fund allocations to claim subsidy for products that will simply be transshipped into a vessel from a local tank farm, taken to the sea, and simply return it.'Besides, he alleged that some other overzealous marketers use the allocation of FOREX meant for purchase of petroleum products to trade on the Nigerian parallel exchange market, adding that the DPR is presently working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to combat such abuses and violators would be dealt with by the appropriate agencies.In a goodwill message at the inauguration of the standing committees of the House of Representatives at the National Assembly yesterday, the NBA President, Joseph Daudu, however noted that machineries for making quality legislations needed to be provided.Daudu said: 'Nigerians recognise the importance of the National Assembly in this democracy and that is why you get statements of concerns from Nigerians regarding your performance. But the output of the legislature must be enhanced because it is time to churn out legislations to standardise our economy'But former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, asked the National Assembly to set legislative machineries in motion for the scrapping of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).Delivering an inauguration lecture entitled 'Public Expectation from the Committee System', Agbakoba declared that the NNPC had become a drain-pipe on the country's petroleum resources.According to him, the corporation had made it difficult for Nigerians to even know how much is realised from the sale of crude oil yearly.He said the situation had been compounded by the fact that the National Assembly has limited knowledge about the operations in the petroleum sector.According to the former NBA boss, it has become important for the National Assembly to deepen its knowledge base in order to improve on its oversight function.
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