JONATHAN PACIFIES OIL MARKETERS WITH N100BILLION, AS FUEL CRISIS ENTERS 3RD DAY

President Goodluck Jonathan ordered on Tuesday that a sum of N100billion be made available to settle the outstanding debt the government owed oil marketers. The Minister of Finance Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala confirmed that a Sovereign Debt Note of N100bn had been issued by the Debt Management Office to settle part of the subsidy arrears owed oil marketers. The Minister added that an agreement had been reached with the marketers’ union that N100bn out of the outstanding N185bn subsidy debt be paid.

The minister said as part of the agreement, the government would not only pay the costs that the marketers had incurred, but also the interests and foreign exchange differentials. In order to facilitate the payment, the minister said the Central Bank of Nigeria had given approvals for banks to issue letters of credit to oil marketers. The minister said that contrary to speculations, the queues were not caused by payment issues, adding that the government paid the marketers a total of N320.8billion from the Excess Crude Account in two instalments last December.

Before now only Total, Mobil, Oando, Conoil, Forte Oil and MRS are importing with expectation of getting their money at a later date, they stated that they have no cause to doubt government’s promise to pay them.

Meanwhile the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the real causes of the fuel scarcity across the country should be blamed on the looting of the $12 billion domestic gas funds as well as government failure to pay fuel subsidy and the cost of interests on bank loans to oil marketers, thus making it impossible for them to begin another round of importation of refined petroleum products

In a statement issued in Dubai on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the PDP and the Jonathan Administration decided to divert attention from those problems by accusing the opposition of being responsible for the scarcity - a most laughable and irresponsible statement by a sitting government that is always so eager to blame everyone but itself for the nation's woes.