The presidency has denied that President Muhammadu Buhari queried the chief executive officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, over the recent importation of dirty fuel into the country.
This development comes as petrol, on Tuesday, sold for N800 per litre within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
According to the presidential source, yesterday, no query was issued to the management of the NMDPRA, contrary to an earlier report in the media.
A report by a national newspaper, (not BusinessDay), and credited to an unnamed source, had said an angry President Buhari, who doubles as minister of petroleum, directed the minister of state, Timipre Sylva, to issue a query to Farouk Ahmed, the NMDPRA boss.
The competent presidential source, while setting the records straight, told State House correspondents that “no such order was given by the president”
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“There was no directive to issue a query. What Mr President is interested in is for all the stakeholders to team up, and resolve the issue that has brought untold hardship to Nigerians, who queue hours to get petrol.”
The source said “the president is aware that the minister of state, the group managing director of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, the NMDPRA head, and everyone involved are working together to resolve the issues, at the shortest possible time,”.
The source added that what was uppermost in the mind of the president was the restoration of smooth supply of quality petrol to Nigerians, “and not recriminations or blame game.”
“Forget the story of any query being issued. It is not correct. Yes, Mr President is unhappy with what happened, but he didn’t direct that a query be issued. The story is not correct,” the source affirmed.
