Northern senators meet over fuel subsidy removal

Posted by admin Legislature, North-Central, North-East, North-West, Senate Thursday, October 6th, 2011

Northern senators met on Wednesday night to analyse plans by the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy in January, 2012.

Our correspondent learnt that senators under the Northern Senators Forum, headed by Senator Umar Dahiru, discussed the matter extensively and planned the strategy to adopt.

Although some senators have spoken for and against the proposal, the northern caucus, it was learnt, is planning to stand united against the proposal.

A senator, who attended the meeting, told our correspondent on Thursday that they examined the details of the proposal, and would soon make its position known publicly.

He said, “The meeting held last night and we actually brainstormed on the issue of fuel subsidy, but that is not the only issue that came up for discussion.

“The way it is going, it is most likely that the forum will reject it given the associated consequences of the policy to the nation’s poor.”

Chairman, Senate Services Committee, Suleiman Adokwe, and a member of the forum told our correspondent in a separate interview that the policy should be critically reviewed before implementation.

According to him, an investigation should be carried out to determine how much government is really paying as subsidy.

He said the subsidy issue was shrouded in secrecy so that it had become difficult for people to ascertain its true nature.

Senator Bukola Saraki, a member of the forum, had also proposed a motion which has yet to be taken on the floor of the Senate, seeking to investigate the fraud within the subsidy regime.

Saraki noted that although N240bn was earmarked in the 2011 Appropriation Act as subsidy for petroleum products, a total of N931bn was expended as at August 2011.

He asserted that the N240bn budgeted was meant to be N20bn per month, noting that of the N20bn per month allocated, N11.2bn was for domestic fuel subsidy (NNPC) and N8.8bn for domestic fuel subsidy (Market) as stated in the Appropriation Act.

Saraki however raised a point of order on Thursday to draw the attention of the Senate to the motion which had been listed on several occasion on the Order Paper, but was not taken.

But President of the Senate, David Mark, explained that there were equally other important motions that were listed for consideration, assuring that Saraki’s motion would be taken at the appropriate time.

-Punchwp_posts