The House of Representatives on Thursday asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to suspend the companies involved in the importation of methanol-blended petrol.
The lawmakers also asked the NNPC to provide the names of the companies to its committee for investigation.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, has named MRS, Oando, Emadeb Consortium, and Duke Oil, a subsidiary of the NNPC, imported the methanol-blended petrol.
The legislators resolution was passed during the plenary session on Thursday following the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Mohammed Monguno.
Onofiok Luke (Akwa Ibom, PDP) said NNPC Limited should be held responsible for the importation of adulterated fuel.
Luke asked the parliament to take action on the matter to ensure and restore the confidence of Nigerians.
The Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu, said the NNPC limited has not done due diligence in its duty as a regulatory agency (sic). He said the parliament had conducted several investigations on the infraction committed by the NNPC limited.
Okechuckwu said, “What we have seen is that this parliament has been hired by NNPC to work for it. So many investigations have been carried out by the parliament,” he said.
“The due diligence to import appropriate petroleum products has become a war.”
He said Nigerians that have fallen victims to the adulterated products should be compensated, adding that NNPC and its agencies which have not been contributing to the federation account have failed in their purpose.
The motion was unanimously adopted when it was put to a voice vote by Idris Wase, deputy speaker of the house.
The lawmakers subsequently mandated its “committee on petroleum downstream to ascertain whether the Nigerian specification concerning importation, distribution and dispensing of the alleged toxic petrol in Nigeria from January till date complies with international standards”.
They also asked the committee to “investigate the roles played by the NNPC limited, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian navy, any other government regulatory agencies, limited liabilities companies and individuals in the unfortunate episode”.
