The Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Monday said it was illegal for the crude oil produced on the shores of Nigeria to be refined outside the country.
Dogara who stated this while addressing National Executive of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, led by its President, Chinedu Okoronkwo, expressed regrets over the failure of past administration to encourage domestic refining of the nation’s crude oil.
He said that singular act by the previous administration could make the country a laughing stock in comity of nations.
According to him, “I don’t know if there is any country that produces the kind of oil that is produced in Nigeria that refines outside its products own shores. For me, it is kind of illegal. This is most inexcusable because we have turned this nation into a laughing stock.
“Why is it that we can’t refine this oil here? Why is it that in an oil producing country our brothers and sisters have to queue for nine hours to buy a product that should just be there? This is something that I believe that with your expertise you need to leverage on.”
On the removal of oil subsidy, the speaker said: “As a legislator, I can tell you there is something about subsidy removal that we are not looking at.
“There is a Price Control Act; if you look at the PCA, section 4 talks about regulating or controlling the prices of products that are listed in the first schedule of that act.
“One of the products listed in the first schedule is petroleum products, so by law in this country, we must control the price of petroleum products.
“But the law as passed by parliament gives a window and prescribing, vesting the responsibility of adding up items on the schedule of the giving items to the price regulating board and I am not sure we have that board in place.”