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Fuel Crisis: Senate accuses Presidency Of Promoting Falsehood

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-Senate says instead of shifting blames in the guise of ‘Blame Someone Else,’ the Executive and Legislature should work together to solve this unecessary fuel crisis which is making life more difficult for our people.

-is due to the failure of the Senate to approve a loan request tendered to it by the Executive, for the payment of debts owed oil marketers – Kyari

Fuel Crisis: The Presidency is peddling falsehood – Senate

Nigerian Senate, on Wednesday declared that the Presidency is intentionally promoting falsehood regarding a request to pay oil marketers.

Naija News recalls that on Tuesday, the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, had, during a meeting with stakeholders in the oil industry, on the recurrent fuel scarcity in the country, blamed the Senate for the fuel scarcity. Kyari said it is due to the failure of the Senate to approve a loan request tendered to it by the Executive, for the payment of debts owed oil marketers.

However, in a statement issued on Wednesday, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, stated that the upper legislative chamber never received any request from the presidency.

Abdullahi said the “Senate will want the public to know that no such request has been made to it; specifically requesting for loan meant for payment to oil marketers. Senate is aware that subsidy on petroleum had been cancelled by this administration; so we wonder which payment we are talking about now.

“Senators have been inundated with calls from oil marketers who were present at the meeting with the chief of staff to the president on the issue and, thus, we call on Mallam Kyari to either prove his claim or retract it.

He went on to say that: “It should be noted that a similar claim was made by the Minister of Finance on the foreign loan, at a time the Presidency had not forwarded the request. The letter requesting the foreign loan was submitted long after she was confronted with the fact.

“It is the opinion of the Senate that, instead of resorting to false claims and shifting blames in the mould of ‘Blame Someone Else,’ the Executive and Legislature should work together to solve this unecessary fuel crisis which is making life more difficult for our people.”

He included that members of the Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) were compelled to suspend their recess and carry out oversight visits to key areas in the sector.

Hence, the committee will, today, Thursday conduct a public hearing with all stakeholders, in order to find solution to the challenge of fuel scarcity in the country.