Crime
Reps to investigate NNPC fuel subsidy claim from 2017-2021
The House of Representatives has constituted an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the Petroleum Products Subsidy regime between 2017 and 2021 by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
This followed the adoption of a motion by Rep. Sergius Ogun (PDP-Edo), on the floor of the House on Wednesday in Abuja.
In his motion, Ogun said he was informed that as of 2002, the NNPC purchased crude oil at international market prices, which stood at 445,000 barrels per day.
He added that it was to enable it to provide petroleum products for local consumption, saying he was concerned that as of 2002, the installed capacity of Nigeria’s local refineries stood at 445,000 barrels per day.
He, however, said that their capacity utilisation began to nosedive, and eventually fell completely to zero, due to the ineffectiveness and alleged corruption of critical stakeholders in the value chain.
The lawmaker said that due to a decline in the production capacity of the refineries, NNPC found it more convenient to export domestic crude, in exchange for petroleum products on a trade by barter basis.
According to him, the component cost in the petroleum products subsidy value chain claim by the NNPC is highly over-bloated.
Ogun claimed that the transferred pump price per litre, used by the NNPC in relation to PPMC, was under-quoted as N123-N128 instead of N162-N165
He said that the fraudulent under-reporting of N37-N39 per litre, translated into more than N70 billion a month, or N840 billion naira a year.
Ogun expressed worry that the consumption rate of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS), was 40 million to 45million litres per day, adding that the NNPC used 65 million to 100 million litres per day.
This, he said was to determine subsidy as discoverable from NNPC monthly reports to the Federal Allocation Committee (FAAC).
According to him, the subsidy regime has been unscrupulously used by the NNPC and other critical stakeholders to subvert the nation’s crude oil revenue to the tune of more than 10 billion dollars.
Ogun said records showed that as at 2021, over seven billion dollars of 120 million barrels was diverted.
He also alleged that there was evidence that subsidy amounts were being duplicated.
The lawmaker added that subsidy was charged against petroleum product sales in the books of NNPC, as well as against crude oil revenue in the books of NAPIMS, to the tune of more than N2 trillion.
The Anambra State Police Command has foiled a cult initiation ceremony in Nawfia, Njikoka Local Government Area of the state.
Spokesperson for the Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Awka.
According to Ikenga, the operation was carried out by police operatives around 9:30am on June 15, leading to the arrest of six suspects at the scene.
Recovered during the raid were one Jojef pump action gun, two cartridges, and a golden-coloured Lexus SUV with registration number ATN 202 AE. Other items found include two cutlasses, two scissors, a cap bearing the inscription of the Supreme Vikings Confraternity, charms, and substances suspected to be hard drugs.
“They are currently undergoing police interrogation to get more insight into their modus operandi, after which the case will be charged to court on the conclusion of the investigations,” Ikenga stated.
The police spokesperson reassured residents of the command’s unwavering commitment to fighting cultism and other related crimes across the state.
An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, on Wednesday, remanded two persons, Olaitan Fasasi and Kehinde Tobiloba in a correctional facility over alleged attempted murder.
Fasasi, 40, and Tobiloba, 26, whose addresses were not provided, are being charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and membership of a secret society.
The Magistrate, Mr L.A Owolabi, did not take the plea of the defendants for want of jurisdiction.
Owolabi directed the police to forward the case file to the Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice.
He thereafter adjourned the case until May 31 for mention.
The Prosecutor, Josephine Ikhayere, told the court that the defendants committed the offences at about 5.02p.m on Feb. 15, at Mushin, Lagos.
She said that Fasasi, Tobiloba and others now at large, attempted to commit murder by shooting at a resident, Alfred Ademola.
“They armed themselves with a locally made gun. They belong to Eiye Confraternity, a group proscribed by law,”, she said.
Ikhayere said that the offences contravened Sections 230(1) and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2012.
He said that the actions of the defendants also contravened Section 2(3)(a)(b)(c)(d) of the unlawful societies and Cultism Law of Lagos State Law.
An Area Court in Jos, on Tuesday, sentenced one Jeptha John, to three months imprisonment for stealing a Redmi mobile phone valued at N165, 000.
The judge, Shawomi Bokkos, sentenced the John after he pleaded guilty to the offence.
The judge, however, gave the convict an option to pay N20, 000 fine and N50, 000 restitution to the complainant.
Bokkos said that if the convict defaulted in paying the restitution, three months should be added to his sentence to make it six months imprisonment.
Earlier, the police prosecutor, Insp Monday Dabit, told the court that the case was reported at the B Division Police Station, Jos, on Dec. 1, 2024, by Ms Nerat Danjuma.
He said that the complainant alleged that the defendant trespassed into her house and stole her mobile phone valued at N165, 000.
The prosecutor further told the court that the offence contravened the Plateau State Penal Code, Law of Northern Nigeria.
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