Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva
Minister blames ‘profiteering’ marketers for petrol scarcity, as FEC approves N117bn for construction of Oloibiri oil museum in Bayelsa
Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N117 billion for the construction of the proposed Oloibiri oil museum in Bayelsa State.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, who disclosed this to State House Correspondents at the end of Wednesday’s meeting of the Council, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the proposed facility would also serve as a research centre to enhance academic activities.
This is also as the minister blamed some marketers for the current scarcity of petroleum products, especially petrol, as he accused them of wanting to ‘make filthy profits.’
“The Federal Executive Council today approved the award of the contract for the construction of the Oloibiri Oil Museum and Research Centre to Julius Berger PLC in the sum of N117 billion with a completion time frame of 30 months,” the minister said.
According to Sylva, the project, which was initiated in the early 1980s by the late President Shehu Shagari could not be continued due to paucity of funds, saying ’but the Muhammadu Buhair led administration has injected life into the project because of its importance.’
On the recent emergence of queues at petrol stations across the country, the Minister said some marketers were responsible because they want to make filthy profits ‘but the government will do everything possible to ameliorate the situation.’
“This is quite unfortunate and we are not happy at all with what is going on. Every hand is on deck to check the excesses of these marketers. At the moment today there is supply but unfortunately we are experiencing some bottlenecks in the distribution and movement of the product to various destinations. I want to assure you that everything is being done; the NNPC Ltd and all other stakeholders are working hard to ensure that this problem is resolved.
“We have reports of profiteering by marketers and I have directed the pricing regulatory agency, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to sanction anybody who profiteers on this kind of situation.”
