The Nigerian Senate, on Wednesday denied claims by Mallam Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, that the National Assembly is in possession of a request by the Federal Government seeking approval for a loan to pay outstanding debts to oil marketers.
A statement by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, said Kyari made the claim during a meeting with stakeholders in the nation’s oil industry on the perennial fuel scarcity in the country, where he reportedly blamed for the delayed payment.
An obviously unhappy Abdullahi, noted: “The Senate would want members of the public to know that no such request has been made to it specifically requesting for loan meant for payment to oil marketers.”
He recalled that subsidy on petroleum products had since been cancelled by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, wondering “which payment we are talking about now,” lamenting that arising from the claim, “Senators have been inundated with calls from oil marketers who were present at the meeting with the Chief of Staff to the President on the issue and thus.”
The Senators therefore challenged “Mallam Kyari to either prove his claim or retract” the claim, recalling that the Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance once also blamed the upper chamber for delaying approval for a foreign loan “at a time the Presidency had not forwarded the request.
“The letter requesting for the foreign loan was submitted long after she was confronted with the fact.”
Rather than resorting to blame game and outright falsehood, the Senate said both the executive and legislature arms of government should collaborate to solve the unnecessary fuel crisis that repeatedly makes life difficult for Nigerians.
The fuel crisis during the yuletide, Abdullahi further said, “was why members of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream were mandated by the Senate President to suspend their recess and embark on oversight visits to key areas in the sector.”
The committee will on Thursday, January, 4, 2018, hold an investigative public hearing with all stakeholders aimed at finding solution to the problem of fuel scarcity.”