The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has said it regrets the hardships it caused Nigerians by the importation of off-spec Premium Motor Spirit, known as petrol.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Melee Kyari, while appearing before the House of Representatives in Abuja on Wednesday, said the struggles for fuel would end by next week, with the efforts being made by the company to correct the anomaly.
Kyari partly said, “I was very clear during my first media review, and let me also repeat, again, for this purpose: first, we did not know that this product contained methanol. We absolutely did not know and your investigation will give you the reality at the end of the tunnel. Once you have this situation and you withdraw volumes in the market, you will have supply disruption and it comes with consequences.
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“We are very conscious of the consequences that will come with it – the queues that you are seeing, the disruption of the economic activities that are very obvious, and the liquidated damages that can be a legal process where you may not even be able to recover your possession. So, we are aware of this. We regret this situation and it is completely unavoidable. We apologise to Nigerians. We didn’t see this coming,” he said.
Earlier, the chairman of the committee, Abdullahi Mahmoud said, the NNPC must be up and doing in its responsibilities.
He said, what happened has placed Nigerians in a very difficult situation adding that the country and its people are paying the price for a seemingly deliberate failure.
Some members of the community who expressed their anger said, that despite NNPC’s explanation and measures to tackle the situation, anybody who neglected his responsibilities must be held responsible.
