By Adedayo Akinwale
Following the THISDAY report of February 14, 2021, the House of Representatives has ordered an investigation into the allocation of crude oil under the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme from 2018 till date.
The House reached the resolution following the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance moved at plenary on Wednesday by Hon. Abubakar Yalleman.
Moving the motion, the lawmaker said the contents of the THISDAY Newspaper report brought to national attention the unfortunate details of how Nigeria’s crude oil was being stolen or diverted daily.
Yalleman said according to the report, approximately 5.2 million barrels of crude oil supposedly allocated to comatose the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refineries in 2018 under DSDP operations are unaccounted for.
He stressed that essentially, almost half of the 10.9 million barrels of crude oil allocated for domestic supply between June 2018 and July 2019 as reported by the NNPC was either stolen or diverted.
Yalleman explained that the average price for Nigerian crude oil in 2018 was $65, which means that the unaccounted volume may have denied the country $339 million at a time of acute revenue deficit.
The House said it would like to find out the status of the 5.2 million barrels allocated for domestic supply in 2018 till date.
The House resolved: “That the Committee on Petroleum (Down Stream) should investigate the allocation of crude oil under DSDP scheme from 2018 till date.
“Investigate crude oil allocation per refineries and the rationale for such allocation. What happens to unutilised stock of crude oil in the case of a refinery with inadequate production capacity.?”
The House also expressed worry about the spate of missing critical national revenue, saying that unless these leakages are plugged, they would deepen the national deficit, while also depriving the country of the much-needed development.
