“We can’t talk about subsidy without knowing how much we consume” – Gbajabiamila
The House of Representatives has commenced an investigation to determine how much fuel is consumed in the country daily.
The House is also investigating the state of the country’s four refineries in a bid to make recommendations on how to “bring them back to life.”
The Speaker of the House, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, set up two adhoc committee’s during Wednesday’s plenary in Abuja to conduct the separate investigations.
He noted that figures on fuel consumption in the country were conflicting and difficult to bet on their accuracy.
Gbajabiamila said before the House would address the issue of subsidies on petrol, it would first determine the daily fuel consumption figures.
“We have had figures bandied here and there without any authenticity.
“Before we can even begin to talk about subsidy, we need to know how much fuel we are consuming as a nation”, he told his colleagues.
On the refineries, the Speaker named a second committee to
“to know the state of disrepair or repair and determine what will be needed to bring the refineries back to life again.”
The committee to investigate the level of fuel consumption is chaired by Rep. Abdullahi Ningi and has 14 other members.
It has four weeks to turn in a report.
Gbajabiamila directed the committee not to restrict its source of information to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation alone, but should reach out to other sources, including “international experts”, organised labour, transport unions, “every organisation that deals with facts/ documents” and motor licensing offices across the Federation.
The committee investigating the state of refineries has Rep. Ganiyu Johnson and has 14 other members.