By Ed Malik, A | December 9, 2022
ed@ddnewsonline.com
Prominent human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN; has described the 48-hour ultimatum given by the Department of State Services (DSS) to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and oil marketers to end the lingering fuel scarcity in the country over security concerns, as a empty threat.
It will be recalled that the DSS Spokesman, Peter Afunanya, on Thursday, at a press briefing stated that failure to make the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called Petrol, available to Nigerians would prompt the services to activate its operations across the country.
The DSS averred that the lingering scarcity of fuel has assumed a dimension that is capable of impacting and precipitating a challenge on some sort on the security of the country.
But Falana thought otherwise when he made a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday and described the ultimatum as an empty threat that did not take into account sectoral responsibilities.
The senior advocate explained that it is the responsibility of the NNPC to supply petroleum products to all parts of Nigeria and expressed that if the Corporation failed in that onerous responsibility, the Federal Government was obligated to call the officials to order or sanction them.
Though, he acknowledged the security concerns of the DSS but however, noted that the ultimatum is will not work because there is no sanction for impunity in Nigeria.
According to him, the continued presence of long queues at filling stations could lead to “serious security problems.”
Vehicle owners and commuters in major cities of the country, especially Lagos, Abuja and other capital cities have been going through a hellish ordeal to get fuel to run their vehicles, which invariably have impacted the pump prices of the product with motorists paying as high as N350 per litre which is markedly different from the official price of N169/litre.
Nonetheless, after the DSS threat, the NNPC said it has released 1.9bn litres of the product into the system, which hopefully, will cater for national consumption in the next few days.