June 26, 2023

Former Governor of Bauchi State, Isa Yuguda, on Monday said that fuel subsidy has always been a scam, claiming it was run by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) in conjunction with marketers and other stakeholders in the oil sector.

Yuguda who also was former minister of state for transportation, disclosed this when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

According to him, he was privileged to serve as the chairman of a subcommittee between 2008 and 2009 under the economic meltdown period and he chaired the committee on subsidy where everything about the scam from the initiative 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 claimed to pump the products and those that are in the subsidy scam, they just fill papers, invoices and they claim subsidy on it,” Yuguda said.

When asked again if it was indeed the NNPC that was making these claims, Yuguda replied in the affirmative.

“Who 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.