By John Ikani
Isa Yuguda, the former Governor of Bauchi State, revealed on Monday that the fuel subsidy, which was recently removed, had been primarily a fraudulent operation orchestrated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), in collaboration with oil sector marketers and other stakeholders.
Yuguda, who also served as the former Minister of State for Transport, made these remarks during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily. He recounted his experience as the chairman of a subcommittee during the 2008-2009 economic meltdown, where he led the committee on subsidy and uncovered the intricacies of the scam.
During his interview, Yuguda expressed his sadness in revealing the truth to Nigerians, stating, “I am sad to let Nigerian’s know what I saw; we came across situations where subsidy was claimed on pipelines that never existed.”
Elaborating further, the former minister explained that both the NNPC and the marketers were involved in the deceitful practices. They would falsely claim that a certain volume of finished products or crude oil had been pumped. “Those that claim to pump the products and those involved in the subsidy scam simply filled out papers and invoices to claim subsidies,” Yuguda clarified.
When asked specifically if the NNPC was responsible for these fraudulent claims, Yuguda confidently responded in the affirmative. “Who else is doing it?” he rhetorically questioned.
Yuguda emphasized that the removal of the subsidy had been extensively discussed and was long overdue. However, previous governments lacked the political will to implement the necessary measures for subsidy removal.
