The Senate yesterday cut short its three-week recess to convene a meeting with stakeholders in the oil sector, with a view to addressing the fuel scarcity which appears to have defied solutions.
This is as the Senate has vowed to unveil forces or factors behind the fuel scarcity which has caused Nigerians untold hardship in lasted last three weeks.
Consequently, its committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), has summoned relevant stakeholders in the Industry to appear before it next week Thursday (January 4, 2018) at an investigative public hearing session.
A terse statement signed by the chairman of the committee, Senator Kabiru Marafa (APC Zamfara Central) yesterday, said there would be public hearing which would have in attendance, the minister of state for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Maikanti Baru, heads of other petroleum parastatals and marketers.
According to the reports gathered by Eyes Of Lagos that, Senator Marafa insisted that the public hearing would be televised live by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) for Nigerians to get a glimpse of what is happening.
He added that the meeting which will be held in the Senate Hearing Room 221 is meant to address the lingering fuel scarcity bedeviling the nation in the last few weeks with a view to putting a complete stop to the unsavory development.
“The planned meeting with critical stakeholders in the industry, aims at unraveling forces or factors behind the current fuel crisis and possible way out in the interest of Nigerians,” he said.
It would be recalled that efforts made so far by NNPC management and independent marketers to end the scarcity within the last two weeks, have proved abortive as long queues of vehicles at filling stations across the country and exorbitant sales of the commodity at black markets remain unabated.
The Senate, which is presently on Christmas and New Year break, is billed to resume committee work for budget defence on January 9 and commence plenary on January 16.
