Missing Trucks Of Petroleum: PDP Calls For Probe | The Precision

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on
security agencies to immediately launch a probe into the voluntary
disclosure of the Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum
Cooperation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, that 4,501 trucks of petroleum
recently went missing. 

The PDP, in a statement signed by its Deputy National Publicity
Secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi, copies of which were obtained by
newsmen on Sunday noted, if trucks of petrol could suddenly develop
wings and could not be traced in the ministry that is directly being
supervised by President Mohammadu Buhari, the signs are rather obvious
that the plundering of the nation’s commonwealth in ministries,
departments and parastatals are at unimaginable rate.

The party expressed shock over what it called “additional means of
stealing to finance APC and President Buhari’s re-election next year in
addition to the proposed N1billion daily funding of Boko Haram which the
administration claimed have been technically defeated.”

Dr. Baru disclosed that the trucks laden with petrol could not be
traced when he appeared before Senate Committee probing the scarcity of
the product last week.

Insisting that such disclosure, apart from giving out Buhari
Presidency as largely incompetent, also exposed Nigeria as a country
with no security shield, the PDP said the missing trucks must have been
sold and the proceeds kept in special coffers being ‘fattened’ for 2019
elections.

According to PDP, the nation’s presidency went into ‘sleep mode’ and
caused scarcity of petroleum, thereby exposing Nigerians to untold
hardship, as a shortage of petroleum snuffed the life out of Yuletide
celebrations, adding that only in a clime with weak or no government at
all could such an incidence happen.

The statement reads in part: “The PDP is demanding investigation into
Baru’s statement that such an embarrassingly huge number of truckload
of petrol, 4,501 in total, running into several million of litres of a
commodity which incidentally Nigerian public suffered and still suffers
its scarcity could disappear without the government that lay claim to
fighting corruption caring a hoot.

“The PDP is asking, where were the relevant security agencies and
bodies saddled with the issues of petroleum products when such a huge
number of trucks vanished into thin air? Is it is not looking like the
ruling party is scooping for money from every available and illegal
means to procure the 2019 general elections?

“Security agencies, especially EFCC should not limit its activities
to finding money dumped in the open by unknown persons or the selective
fight against the opposition, the agency should also widen its scope to
establish the veracity of Baru’s claim that such numbers of tankers
truly disappeared in a ministry supervised by President Buhari himself
who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum.

“This is one incident too many in the Ministry the same ministry that
recorded an unprecedented fraud last year when Mr Ibe Kachukwu, State
Minister of petroleum declared that Dr Mikanti Baru helped himself with a
whopping $25 million that belongs to the country.

“The matter was swept under the carpet. This is another one. To say
the obvious is that the cost of 4,501 truck runs into several billions
of naira. If the tankers travelled through the land or sea borders, then
those saddled with the responsibilities of manning those places should
be investigated.

“The disclosure is a serious indictment on the Presidency. From all
indications, stealing and pilfering under this administration is
becoming unbearable for Nigerians, we can imagine what difference the
cost of 4,501 trucks of petrol would have done if injected into the
Nigeria economy.

“It is our hope that this incident will not be swept under the carpet,” the party concluded. (Channels TV)