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Otunba Segun Sowunmi, a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Ogun State, says President Bola Tinubu has committed an impeachable offence in his supervision of the Petroleum Ministry and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
Sowunmi said this while appearing on Channels Television's Politics Today on Wednesday, September 4, 2024.
This is coming on the heels of the latest increase in fuel pump price by the NNPCL from the former official rate of 600 naira to nearly 900 naira.
After weeks of long queues at filling stations across the country due to supply shortages, the national oil company admitted last weekend that debt of over 6 billion dollars owed to international oil traders had put a strain on its operations.
The company stressed that the debt obligation significantly contributed to the shortage of fuel supply to local marketers hence the scarcity.
This came after NNPCL had initially denied that its outstanding debts to suppliers have been a major factor behind the ongoing fuel scarcity across the country.
On Tuesday, Nigerians woke up to the news that the oil company had adjusted the pump price from ₦617 to ₦897 with the aim of resolving the scarcity.
Sowunmi blasts FG over hike in fuel price
Reacting to the development, Sowunmi lambasted the Federal Government for inflicting untold hardship on the masses by jacking up the fuel price.
The PDP chieftain said a serious National Assembly should have summoned President Tinubu in his capacity as the Minister of Petroleum and subject him to some questioning over the management of the NNPCL and the oil sector as a whole.
He also declared the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, unfit to occupy the office, wondering why he has not been relieved of his duty despite the alleged mess and corruption in the company.
"I've wondered except to maybe they have some crooked underhand dealings that the government is just allowing them to get away with, there is no reason why Mele should be sitting down on that chair.
A serious national assembly will not just be calling Mele Kyari, he's too small. A serious national assembly will be calling the President who doubles as the minister of petroleum to come and answer charges," Sowunmi noted.
Sowunmi calls for Tinubu's impeachment
The former governorship aspirant also questioned the NNPCL and the Federal Government on the alleged backdoor reintroduction of subsidies and accused the President of committing an offence that could make him liable to impeachment.
"Appropriation is a very serious issue, one of the serious ways to get yourself into impeachment is for you to abuse your responsibility and authority, somebody has some serious explaining to do.
"Is the NNPC running our national crude and all of that on its own whim and caprice and is it spending the resources that it made by the sales of our national assets on the whim and caprice? Who gave them the authority to be balancing up the books and the numbers?
"How come they could have told us there is no subsidy and they're coming out to tell us that not only have there been subsidy, they're telling us we're even owing almost to the tune of almost six billion dollars. And then to slap us in the face, in a most annoying and unfeeling manner, they're telling us they're going to change the price just like that.
"They're even acting in a more annoying manner, it means that not only are they spending without appropriation, they're even spending money that nobody knows where they're getting it from.
"So when people say our (crude) oil is stolen, we don't know how much we make, why would you be disappointed when the people that are in charge of the government have the temerity to be telling us that NNPC has been spending that money on whose authority and by whose approval?
"That's an impeachable offence. The man doubles as the minister of petroleum," he added.