PPMC: Yar’Adua’s aide stopped kerosene subsidy removal

Managing Director of the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) Haruna Momoh yesterday told a House of Representatives committee that the 2009 presidential directive on the removal of kerosene subsidy was countered by President Yar’adua’s principal secretary who asked the petroleum minister to delay the implementation.

Momoh said the principal secretary, who conveyed the memo to the ministry, had also written on the same letter that the minister should not made the directive public, which left the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to solely forge ahead with the subsidised importation of the product into the country.

The PPMC boss said this during his second-day appearance on the ongoing public hearing on kerosene subsidy probe by the House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream).

But when asked whether a presidential directive could be countered by his secretary or any other individual, Momoh said: “I will not delve into those presidential matters.”

He added only the lawyers of the oil company could answer that, which led the committee’s chairman, Rep Dakuku Peterside (APC, Rivers) to summon NNPC’s secretary for explanation.

He explained that since it was only NNPC that has been importing the product since the beginning of 2011, claims of kerosene subsidy was always being made by the corporation, and the payments always went to them.

He said statutory, it is the sole responsibility of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to issue permit for any importation into the country.

The committee expressed surprise at the claims by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) that it only rely on the imported kerosene volume figures forwarded to them by NNPC in effecting the payment of subsidy claims.

Executive Secretary of the agency, Riginald Stanley confirmed to the committee that PPPRA normally depends on the certified documents from NNPC, without having to ascertain the actual volumes of the imported kerosene by the corporation.

“We superintend the discharge, but when the vessels arrive Lagos, we are not there to inspect,” Stanley said.

He disclosed that a total of N331 billion was approved to be paid to NNPC as subsidy claim covering the period of 2009 to 2011 after the issuance of the presidential order on kerosene subsidy suspension.

Within the 19 months of 2012 to 2013 period, there were total of over 3 billion litres of kerosene imported into the country by NNPC, which had a corresponding amount of N543.89 billion as the subsidy claim, he explained.