Senate gives Buhari 2 weeks to end fuel scarcity

The Nigerian Senate on Thursday gave the Minister of Petroleum Resources, President Buhari two weeks to end the lingering fuel crisis in the country.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Uche Lilian Ekwunife handed down this directive on Thursday at a meeting with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.

Ekwunife's order came when officials led by the Managing Director, Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Mrs. Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, said Nigeria has lost 531 million litres of fuel worth N50 billion in nine months to pipelines vandalisation.

''We are mandating the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Buhari), the Permanent Secretary and heads of agencies to stop this fuel scarcity in two weeks,'' Ekwunife said. ''We are giving a target now, we do not want to know how you would achieve it, but it must be stopped. This is a critical period. In the next few weeks, there will be Christmas. Nigerians want to see an end to this scarcity and be able to buy petrol at N87 per litre.''