The Oil Cartel, the Cabal and the Rest of Us in Nigeria

Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN)
Eleganza Biro Plaza (5TH Floor),
Plot 634, Adeyemo Alakija Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.


The Oil Cartel, the Cabal and the Rest of Us in Nigeria

Dear Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria,

I read your public information advert on SUBSIDY FACTS with a pinch of salt, because the information you provided is nothing new.

The important issue you mentioned was the emergence of “briefcase” mafia of companies without any asset base and accountability in the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) scheme.

As you rightly noted the total cost of PMS imported into Nigeria as at December 6, 2011, was N141.38 Kobo. The regulated pump price is N65 and the subsidy claim was N76. 38 Kobo.

Ignorance has done more harm to Nigerians than corruption.

The anger of majority of Nigerians was provoked against the government when the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) announced the removal of the fuel subsidy on petrol on New Year’s Day January 1, 2012, because it was totally wrong for the PPPRA to sell subsidized petrol for N141 per litre when it is was regulated to be sold for N65 per litre! This was the initial cause of the nationwide strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and supported by the Civil Liberties Organizations (CSOs). But the escapist government, rumour mongers and apologists of President Goodluck Jonathan desperately looking for scapegoats pointed accusing fingers at the major oil marketers as constituting a shadowy “CABAL”. That they were the ones holding the president to ransom and insisted on the perpetuation of the fuel subsidy on petrol under the PSF scheme since it has become fattest cash cow in Nigeria.

Please, I have the following questions for you.

1. If you are truly committed to deregulation of the downstream sector and accountability of the efficient utilization of national and corporate resources, why have you collectively failed to build new refineries that would have been the top priority of MOMAN and all the members of the board of the PPPRA as identified in your defence?


2. Why have you allowed the petrol imported duty free under the PSF scheme to pass through Nigerian ports without the approval of the Nigerian customs? And thereby violating the due process of the rule of law?


3. Why have you connived and conspired with the so called “briefcase” companies to misappropriate billions of dollars allocated to the PSF and diverted 24 million litres of petrol daily for which the Ministry of Finance paid over N672. 14 billion for this excess petrol in 2011? Because out of the 58.9 million litres imported daily, the daily local consumption was only less than 35 million litres!


4. Can you deny and refute the intelligence reports of security agencies that major oil marketers conspired with some legislators at a secret meeting in the U.S. to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan before the approval of the 2012 Budget, to prevent the implementation since it has no allocation for the fuel subsidy on petrol?


5. These intelligence reports are currently being verified by Nigerians Reports.


6. Finally, your email does not work and your website is STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION after making billions of dollars from the PSF?


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
Publisher/Editor
Nigerians Report

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