Former Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda claimed on Monday that the fuel subsidy had primarily been a scam perpetrated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) in collaboration with marketers and other oil industry stakeholders up until the time it was removed.
Yuguda, a former minister of state for transport, revealed this during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
According to him, he was honoured to serve as the head of a subcommittee during the economic catastrophe time between 2008 and 2009, and he chaired the committee on subsidy where everything about the initiative’s swindle was discovered.
“I am sad to let Nigerians know what I saw; we came across situations where subsidy was claimed on pipelines that never existed,” Yuguda maintained.
The former minister further explained that “They (NNPC and Marketers) just claim that they have pumped X amount of either finished products or crude.
“Those that claim to pump the products and those that are in the subsidy scam, they just fill papers, invoices and they claim subsidy on it,” Yuguda explained.
When asked again if it was indeed the NNPC that was making these claims, Yuguda replied in the affirmative.
“Whos else is doing it,” he rhetorically asked.
He further stated that the removal of subsidy has long been discussed and is long over due, however, previous governments did not have the political will to implement the removal of subsidy.
Below is a video of the former governor speaking on the subsidy removal and other pressing issues.