Cameroon, Niger, Benin, Mali rely on smuggled petrol from Nigeria: NNPC

The Nigeria National Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) has said that Cameroon, Benin, Niger and Mali rely on smuggled petroleum products from Nigeria’s borders.
Umar Ajia, the chief financial officer of NNPC Limited, made the statement when he appeared before a House of Representatives committee investigating Nigeria’s fuel subsidy regime on Monday.
Mr Ajia claimed that neighbouring countries prefer purchasing smuggled subsidised petrol from Nigeria rather than importing fuel into their countries.
He added that anyone can smuggle trucks of petroleum products through the Nigerian borders with as little as N5 million
“If you have five million naira, you can cross the borders with trucks laden with PMS, that is the bitter truth, we have porous borders; yes we have Customs but I do not know,” he said.
“PMS crosses everywhere, to Cameroon through the North East, Nigerian PMS gets to Mali; our neighbouring countries hardly import PMS; infact, some of them do not have the LC cover to back up imports.
“Cameroon refinery got burnt sometime last year or so, since that time, they have not imported PMS but they are still using PMS; if you go to Niger, you find that PMS is sold in bottles.
“To them, it is a cheaper source, why waste their foreign exchange, so we are subsidising our neighbours, that is the simple truth,” Mr Ajia added.
Meanwhile, Mr Ajia said that the Nigerian government spends N209 on every petrol litre as subsidy.
He noted that the 66.7 million daily consumption is based on the truck out from the depot, adding that the NNPC and government agencies are unaware of the precise daily consumption in Nigeria.
“States that consume the most are states like Oyo and Ogun State, they even consume more than Lagos State. So you wonder, is it that they have more vehicles than Lagos?
“This explains that these are states with porous borders and that will explain why this bulk evacuation is going out of Oyo and Ogun states, probably neighbouring countries,” he said.
He said the board of NNPC has extended the Direct Sale and Direct Purchase Agreement with the marketers to avoid fuel shortage during the Christmas and New Year period.
We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.
More from Peoples Gazette

Agriculture
FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology
The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices

Politics
Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku
“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

NationWide
Lions Club urges privileged Nigerians to assist vulnerable people
Mr Fatoki said that the government should not be left to do everything.

Hot news Home top
World leaders react as U.S. enters Israel-Iran war, bombs three nuclear sites in Iran
The Cuban president stated that he strongly condemned the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Hot news Home top
Yelwata: 50 fake internally displaced persons nabbed in Benue
Mr Kunde said that criminals had infiltrated the IDPs camp opened for victims of Yelwata attack.

Heading 1
NEMA educates Kwara residents on tanker accident, fire prevention measures
Ms Umar noted that the event should be the start of a new chapter where attention would shift from silence to advocacy.

Heading 4
Kano ASUU disowns petition on Yusuf Maitama varsity’s VC selection process
Mr Muhammad stated that the petition did not emanate from ASUU but from a group of academics at YUMSFUEK.

States
CP orders probe of Kano explosion
The CP stated that the police secured and cordoned off the area to prevent further harm.