From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
An advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), has said the alleged diversion of $7 billion petrol subsidy under the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is one of the massive corruption that his administration has recorded in the past seven years.
It demanded the resignation of the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), Mele Kyari.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, yesterday, urged civil society organisations and rights activists to drag the Buhari government to court to put an end to the criminal corruption ongoing in the administration.
The group said it was an act of heartlessness for government officials to divert $7 billion meant for subsidy payment on petrol, while Nigerians groan battling scarcity and hike in prices of petrol at over N180 per litre and diesel,which now solve at over N800 per litre.
“NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, if he has any shame at all, should resign if it substantiated that he failed to transparently declare how monies on petrol subsidy are spent and how $7billion got diverted under him.”
The House of Representatives had set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the petroleum products subsidy regime under Buhari from 2017 to 2021, following the adoption of the motion by Sergius Ose Ogun.
The lawmakers had said there exists evidence that subsidy amounts were being duplicated, noting that the subsidy regime had been “unscrupulously” used by the NNPC and other stakeholders to subvert the nation’s crude oil revenue to the tune of over $10 billion, with records showing that as at 2021, over $7billion in over 120 million barrels had been diverted.
NNPC also recently said it spent N9.11billion in each of the months of January, March and April, amounting to N27.33billion to rehabilitate the nation’s refineries.