Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited

Fifteen lawmakers under the aegis of The Economy Rescue Group, have called for the resignation of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari.

The group claims that mismanagement under Mr Kyari’s leadership at the NNPCL is responsible for the challenges faced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

In a press statement signed and released in Abuja on Tuesday by its leader and a lawmaker representing Oredo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Esosa Iyawe, the group insisted that Mr Kyari should be suspended pending the outcome of the House of Representatives’ joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream and Midstream) forensic investigation into the state of the national oil company and the downstream and midstream sectors as a whole.

The lawmakers accused the NNPCL CEO and other management staff of undermining Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

The lawmakers noted that Kyari and his team must be removed until the forensic investigation by the House of Representatives’ Downstream and Midstream Joint Committee is concluded, to avoid any acts of sabotage.

While supporting the House’s forensic investigation into the presence of middlemen in trading, indiscriminate issuance of licences, unavailability of laboratories to check adulterated products, and the influx of adulterated products into the country, the group advised President Tinubu to take decisive action by suspending the NNPCL top echelons until the probe is complete.

The statement read: “We, the 15 concerned lawmakers, state unequivocally that the woes of the oil and gas sector in the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration are caused mainly by the failures and mismanagement of the NNPCL under Kyari’s management. Therefore, to resolve these issues, they should honourably resign.

“In the event they fail to step down on their own, the President should not hesitate to suspend them pending the investigation conducted by the House of Representatives through its joint Committee on Petroleum: Downstream and Midstream.

“The petroleum sector remains the backbone of the nation’s economy, and the allegations uncovered by the House, which necessitated the forensic investigation, are astounding.

“They relate to the presence of middlemen in trading, the indiscriminate issuance of licences, the unavailability of laboratories to check adulterated products, the influx of adulterated products into the country, the allegation of non-domestication of profits realised from crude marketing sales in local banks, and other anomalies.

“Unfair subsidisation of PMS and other petroleum products, which negatively affects competitiveness in the sector, racketeering, and favouritism in the Pro Forma Invoice System (PFI) regime, indiscriminate issuance of licences, and importation of refined petroleum products.”

The 15 lawmakers further alleged: “The return of PMS price intervention with its impact on the domestic market, product unavailability to marketers from NNPC Retail, endless shifting of timelines for refinery rehabilitation, the nefarious activities at petrol depots which have affected product distribution and caused scarcity, and the use of middlemen in trading which has negatively affected domestic crude supply.”

They added, “With all these issues occurring under Kyari’s watch, there is no way the economy can grow.

“It is therefore obvious that the NNPCL management is undermining and is already undermining Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda through incompetence, and they must be suspended to allow for an unhindered probe.”

Mr Iyawe recently moved a motion in the House, calling on the Federal Government to suspend the CEO of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, pending an investigation into his remarks about the quality of petroleum products at Dangote Refinery.

Also in May, Mr Iyawe urged the Federal Government to renovate and convert its abandoned buildings and forfeited land locally and abroad for public use.

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