Managing Director of Capital Oil, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah
The Managing Director of Capital Oil, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah, at the weekend urged President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a committee to probe the recent cut in the supply of petroleum products that almost grounded the country with a view to bringing to book guilty marketers.
The Managing Director of Capital Oil, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah, at the weekend urged President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a committee to probe the recent cut in the supply of petroleum products that almost grounded the country with a view to bringing to book guilty marketers.
Ubah’s request to Buhari who on Friday assumed the leadership of Nigeria was also accompanied by his call on him to remove fuel subsidy and totally deregulate the downstream oil sector of Nigeria.
He spoke with journalists in Abuja and appealed to Nigerians to support deregulation as a means of sustaining supply of petroleum products at affordable prices.
“I have always being of the view that we should deregulate so that we can cut out corruption but unfortunately Nigerians didn’t take it from Jonathan,” Ubah said.
“I urge president Buhari to take a bold step and deregulate the oil sector. He is not a stranger to the sector having being a former minister of petroleum. He will be respected for taking the step, there’s no point paying subsidy when Nigerians are nor benefiting it.
“The president will be doing the right thing if he deregulated the sector so that that the product will be sold at cheaper rate in the future,” he said.
Although, he confirmed that marketers were being owed monies by government, Ubah however maintained that the agitation for the payment of their monies was not properly handled.
He said: “Indeed the marketers are being owed large sums of money and I am one of those being owed a large sum of money but I believe that dialogue should have been the choice of the marketers especially considering the state of the nation.”
“It was unprecedented in the country for oil marketers to go on strike for up to four days and what I expected was there to have been a warning strike before a total shut down.” he added.
While disclosing that the decision to shut down the country was not a unilateral one, he stated that the few marketers who were behind the shutdown should be probed.
“It was unpatriotic for them to shut down the country, if this is not properly investigated there could be a repeat of such, marketers should know that they are not labour unions, there was an agreement with government to pay them gradually, but they disregarded the agreement and unpatriotically threw the country into crisis,” Uba said.
He revealed that he pulled out of the oil marketers’ strike because his company was not consulted before the marketers’ decision to shut down operations was taken against national interest.
According to him: “My facilities store products for the Pipelines and Petroleum Marketing Company (PPMC), an arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which means such products belong to the federal government.
“For a facility like ours, we should be considered before taking this position, what if people storing product in our facilities sue us? They have the rights to take their products, what if PPMC sue us or cancel our contract? We need to ask these questions.”
Ubah said he decided to resume fuel supply because he could not bear the horror of Nigerians dying in hospitals, and banks shutting down and consequently putting the masses in hardship, even as he revealed that his company had to rescue telecoms giant, MTN, by supplying them diesel, a development he said prevented communication across the country from shutting down.
While expressing disappointment that many Nigerians had attributed politics to his gesture, he stated that he had no regret for his action, saying he would be part of those that would ensure Nigeria works well no matter the criticism.
He further advised the federal government to assist investors interested in building refineries in the country, noting that failure by government to give the right support to players in the oil and gas sector in spite of their capacity to run the industry successfully had painfully made Nigerians go through avoidable hardships.
He cited an example with his firm, saying: “Go to Capital Oil you will see over 19 vessels floating, for three years none has worked for one day and these are investment made in line with government policy.
Who will give you facility when you don’t even have turnover?”
“I would like to see the incoming government take a good look at the sector and I will be willing to advise because I have suffered so much in line with government policies in the downstream sector of the Nigerian economy,” he added, saying, “I don’t side with anybody, I go straight to the point and I am not a sycophant for Buhari or for Jonathan.”
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