THE chairman of the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), Femi Falana, has asked President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to be honest with the surging pump price of petrol across Nigeria.

Falana, a senior advocate and human rights lawyer, also called on the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, to desist from saying that the government could not curb the activities of people smuggling petroleum products to neighbouring countries.

He said this in a statement titled, “Re: Why smuggling of fuel from Nigeria to neighbouring countries cannot stop — Oil Minister,” issued by ASCAB, on Monday, August 2.

He noted the Federal Government had acknowledged fuel smuggling from Nigeria to neighbouring countries was an issue that could not be entirely eradicated, pointing out that Lokpobiri highlighted this at the 2024 Energy and Labour Summit in Abuja.

He said, at the meeting, Lokpobiri claimed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) lacked the funds necessary to rebuild the nation’s ageing pipelines, contributing to the problem.

“Mr. Lokpobiri should be advised to stop exposing Nigeria to ridicule by saying that the Federal Government lacks the capacity to curb the nefarious activities of smugglers.

“The Federal Government should come out clean if it has added to the monumental suffering of the Nigerian people by increasing the price of PMS. After all, from less than N700 in July, a litre of petrol has since risen gradually to above N1,000 in most filling stations since the beginning of August. The upward trend of the price of PMS has continued with no successful attempt to stop it as of today,” Falana stated.

The minister’s argument that selling petrol to marketers at about N600 and blame on the lack of funds necessary to rebuild the nation’s ageing pipelines are not tenable, Falana argued.

He said, the minister, on July 13, 2024, disclosed to Nigerians that the Federal Executive Council awarded a $21 million contract for the metering of 187 crude oil flow stations in Nigeria to enable it to properly account for the country’s production and exports.

The minister also revealed the council awarded another contract for the deployment of software that would enable the government to monitor the movement of Nigeria’s crude from the point of loading of every cargo in Nigeria up to the point of the cargo’s destination.

“It is a major development that has never happened in this country. And this project is meant to be completed within six months, within 180 days,” Falana quoted the minister as having said.

Having awarded these contracts, complemented with advanced cargo tracking technology, Falana maintained that “the Federal Government cannot turn round to say that oil theft and smuggling of petrol out of Nigeria to neighboring countries will continue unabated to the detriment of the national economy.”

He stressed that apart from the acquisition of the software to stop the smuggling of petroleum products from Nigeria, the NNPCL had embraced the suggestion to establish mega stations in the neighbouring countries.

Both policies were, however, discarded by the NNPCL in order to boost the smuggling of PMS from Nigeria, he said.

Falana recalled the Federal Government had in 2010 entered into a public-private partnership with a private company called TPMS to operate the policy arrangement which dealt a heavy blow to the smuggling of petrol and oil theft, however, the arrangement was terminated in 2011 and since then all efforts to restore the Cargo Trafficking Note have been frustrated.

He noted further that on August 9, 2018, FEC approved the installation of technology monitoring schemes and structures under the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) for N17 billion.

The former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, revealed that the deployment of the automated fuel system management and censor network would ensure 100 per cent tracking and monitoring of petroleum products as the system would enable Nigerians to know how much petrol is consumed in Nigeria, volumes of products moved out illegally, and the whole impact on Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

However, the automated fuel system management was never installed, while the contract sum of N17 billion was stolen, Falana added.