Fuel scarcity: Tinubu not sincere with Nigerians, says Falana

Human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, has charged President Bola Tinubu to come clean with Nigerians on the issue of fuel subsidy.

Specifically, Falana expressed concerns about the hike in the pump price of petrol, saying the development had contributed to the number of fewer vehicles on the Nigerian roads.

There are strong indications that the pump price of petrol is expected to record another round of increases, following the confession of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited that its substantial debt to suppliers was endangering the sustainable fuel supply.

However, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria, while appearing on Sunday’s Channels Television’s Politics Today, accused the NNPCL and Federal Government of hiding a lot from Nigerians.

He said,”There are so many things the NNPCL and the Federal Government are not telling Nigerians.

“How many people have bought a car in the last one and a half years, even second-hand cars (in Nigeria)? The point I am making is that the number of vehicles on the road has been reduced. Yet, we were told that during the days of boom, the NNPCL was subsidising 68 million litres of fuel per day.

“Now that there are problems, scarcity, and poverty everywhere, no new vehicles on the road, we are still paying for 68 million litres of fuel.

“Whereas before this regime came on board, the Comptroller General of Customs challenged the NNPCL during a Senate public hearing to pay for the amount of fuel that is said to be smuggled out of the country.”

He aslo called on the media and Civil Society Organisations to investigate what he described as “importation scam” in NNPCL.

“I am not talking of the joke that is going on in the National Assembly. The media must help, civil society organisations must help to expose the fraud.”