A group, the Concerned Northern Forum, has rescinded its earlier call for the sack of the management of the NNPC over the adulterated fuel that was imported into Nigeria.
Mallam Ibrahim Bature, Chairman Concerned Northern Forum and Abdulsalam Kazeem, spokesperson of the forum, in a statement in Kaduna, said “it has become inevitable to put the records straight that our position has no political affiliation or influence nor been sponsored by any individual or groups. Our call was borne out of patriotism over the hardship occasioned by the scarcity of premium motor spirit and the huge economic impact of the bad fuel at a time government is battling with dwindling revenue.
“In view of new information at our disposal and the attempts by certain special interests to hijack our demand and use our position to blackmail the present NNPC management over the current artificial PMS scarcity occasioned by marketers dispensing fewer pumps at a time, we hereby state that following the operational error of methanol in PMS above our national specification, which remains an unforeseen problem, we back the call for thorough investigation as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari and urge security agencies to conclude the probe in good time and sanction all those responsible.
“We commend the management of the NNPC Ltd for taking prompt action by alerting the nation on the bad fuel and for taking measured steps to recall the bad product and injecting over 700 million litres and the promise of additional 2.1billion litres to address the shortfall.”
“We demand that regulatory and security agencies ensure that fuel stations sell at the maximum installed capacity and in the event any station is found to be sabotaging government’s effort, the product be dispensed free to motorists and such station sealed. We withdraw our notice for the sack of the NNPC management and nationwide protest but remain committed to the sanctioning of the importing companies and their officials.”
