Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources and Downstream, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, has said the committee has waded into the dispute between the President and Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote and the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed.
Dangote had made sundry allegations against Ahmed but NMDPRA had yet to respond to the allegations.
But Ugochinyere, in a media briefing said the committee had an emergency meeting over the impasse.
He said: “The key issue here that necessitated the emergency meeting was a growing tension that has returned in the downstream sector as a result of the concerns raised by Alhaji Dangote of the Dangote Refinery and NMDPRA.
“These issues for as long as the committee is concerned are coming at a time where the committee is jealously guarding the stability that we have achieved in the downstream petroleum sector. So, the committee met today (yesterday) and agreed to intervene in the matter once again towards finding sustainable solutions. We can only find sustainable solutions when we identify the critical issues that are leading to this tension that has returned.
“And that is why the committee resolved to write a communication to Alhaji Dangote and also the NMDPRA Authority Chief to meet with the committee to be able to give us details and insights into what are the underlying issues that are leading to these allegations and counter allegations.
“And the committee also resolved to plead with the contending parties in the districts to cease fire especially media comments so that we don’t escalate the situation of water because the committee has the capacity to work into this matter and find solutions for us and for us to these issues so we are pleading with the key actors in the dispute to cease fire to reduce the allegation and counter allegations as the committee will get to the root of the matter. Some of those issues we already have received petitions from some of the parties on the issue of import license on the issues of whether the domestic refineries have capacity to produce the entire daily lead of the engineers. All these issues will be resolved at the time.
“Alhaji Dangote, the NMDPRA, another key stakeholder in the downstream refining sector, a regulated sector, should come and meet with the committee so that we can get the real gist of what is happening and be able to come up with the resolution and solution that will provide sustainable solutions. (2:37) So we are pleading with them to cease fighting with further attacks on each other, with the agency, with the refining community, with the refining community, while the committee sought out this issue. This was the high point of decision that was reached by the committee.”
