Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General Lucky Irabor, has warned that the petrol scarcity across the country had become a ‘security concern’ and ‘nobody is indispensable’ in bringing a solution to the problem.
Irabor stated this on Tuesday, during a meeting between oil regulators, security chiefs and petroleum marketers.
“The challenge of availability of fuel across the country has risen to a proportion that it had become a concern for the defence and security of our country,” he said. “The government is not handicapped; and there are alternatives and nobody is indispensable”.
At the event, facilitated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the oil industry regulators engaged the marketers and security agencies to find ways of addressing the lingering fuel crisis in the country.
The engagement was attended by Irabor, the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba and Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali.
Others in attendance were the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed and the leadership of oil marketers including the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN).
Also at the meeting were the leaders of the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) among others.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari. said the fuel distribution crisis was of a monumental proportion, which had taken a different dimension.
Kyari decried the fact that Nigerian fuel was being smuggled to other countries and could only be done either by the people in the industry or those connected or buying from the operators including in marine containers.
