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| …As Senate probes fuel allocation mess •Flings away reporters’ recorders, cameras |
Minister of Petroleum Resources,
Diezani Alison-Madueke, yesterday, barred reporters covering the Senate from
recording verbal proceedings of her meeting with the Petroleum Resources
(Downstream) Committee. The minister, who arrived late to the meeting fixed for
3p.m, blatantly turned down all entreaties by reporters to record the
proceedings of the meeting convened by the Senator Magnus Abe-led committee.
The meeting, Daily Sun learnt, was to proffer solutions to the
perennial fuel scarcity across the country and disparity in the price of PMS.
Meanwhile, three reporters had sought to have the minister on tape during the
questions and answer session but the security details attached to her, seized
their tape recorders and threw them away. When the matter was brought to the
notice of the committee chairman, Senator Abe, ordered the minister’s security
details to behave or be arrested.
returned to her seat, some reporters again, attempted to record the minister’s
response to questions posed to her by the committee on the state of the
promised Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the country’s oil refineries.
prevented the newsmen from recording the session. At that juncture, Senator Abe
intervened and directed the reporters to position their recorders to record the
minister. Rather than allow the midgets to be placed in front of her, the
minister, this time around, seized the midget, belonging to the Daily Trust
reporter and threw it away. The minister muttered that she wouldn’t want the
voice recorders placed directly in front of her.
midget before the minister. It was that point that some newsmen got angry and
stormed out of the meeting. Earlier, Senator Abe had queried the management of
the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) for ceding its power of
allocation of petroleum products to oil unions in its locations.
PMS pricing across the country with some filling stations selling at N97 while
others sell at between N110 and N115. This, the committee said was
unacceptable. Abe said: “ Go back and address the problem at the depots; bring
some sort of order to the loading points.
depots, some of the marketers complained bitterly about how unions have taken
over the duty of the PPMC. “Some have been on queues since 2011 yet only NNPC
trucks are allowed to load products. Human beings should not be treated like
that. Check how the allocations are being done because we heard, in the course
of our oversight that allocations are being done by the unions.” “I wonder how
and why you ceded your powers to the union because you are ultimately
responsible…We need to see changes please. “Bring order to loading points. Look
at the template on how products are being distributed…Ceding powers to unions
is not the situation. There must be a review. Changes must be brought to the
system…”
