The Concerned Northern Forum, a civil society and socio cultural advocacy group yesterday gave reasons why it decided to rescind its call for the immediate sack of the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over the recent importation of contaminated fuel into the country.

In a statement signed by its Chairman, Mallam lbrahim Bature and Spokesman, Abdulsalam Moh’d Kazeem, the group had earlier called for the removal of the management of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Ltd, NNPC, and prosecution of importers involved in the contaminated fuel saga, said it was compelled to rescind the call following misgivings and misreading of its demands, especially by those who profiteer from crisis situations.

“It has become inevitable to put the records straight that our position has no political affiliation or influence nor is it being sponsored by any individual or groups. Our call was borne out of patriotism over the hardship caused by the scarcity of premium motor spirit and the huge economic impact of the bad fuel at a time government is battling with dwindling revenue,” it stated

The Concerned Northern Forum further stated that in view of new information at its disposal and attempts by certain special interests to hijack its demand by using the position to blackmail the NNPC management over the current artificial PMS scarcity caused by marketers dispensing from fewer pumps at a time, it had become imperative to state as follows:

“That following the operational error of adding unacceptable volume of methanol in PMS, we support the call for thorough investigation as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, while urging security agencies to conclude the probe in good time and sanction those found culpable.

We commend the management of the NNPC for taking prompt action by alerting the nation on the bad fuel and for taking measured steps to recall the bad product and injecting over 700 million litres into the market coupled with a promise of additional 2.1billion litres to address the shortfall.
We demand that regulatory and security agencies ensure that fuel stations sell at the maximum installed capacity and sanction any station sabotaging government’s effort, the product be dispensed free to motorists and such station sealed. (Text, excluding headline: Daily Sun)

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