The House of Representatives has called for the suspension of the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed pending the conclusion of investigations into allegations against the Authority.

It followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by Hon. Esosa Iyawe, on the recent fuel quality outage as a result of some unguarded comments made by the NMDPRA CEO.

He said fuel quality is what would not kill an engine hardware, so ultra-low sulfur diesel would be recommended for use. This is because the damage to the engines and environmental pollution were some of the factors against its use. He said that SO2 is serious environmental and health hazard, causing respiratory and cancer problems, amongst others, and so there is a global regulation to cut the emission of this gas.

The NMDPRA permits the production of diesel with sulfur content as high as 650 parts per million by local refiners up until January 2025, with ECOWAS’ approval. The latter cited that the Dangote refinery produces diesel with high sulfur levels of between 650 and 1,200 ppm, inferior to the imported ones, from recent claims reported by the chief executive officer of NMDPRA.

On the heels of this, Dangote demanded an analysis monitored by members of the House, which returned that Dangote’s diesel was 87.6 ppm in sulfur content, while the imported diesel samples stood at over 1,800 ppm and 2,000 ppm, amounting to a disapproval of the CEO’s claims against the NMDPRA.

He further alleged that the NMDPRA had continued to grant licenses to traders importing high-sulfur diesel, which is injurious to health and cost-intensive to Nigerians. He lambasted the unverified statements by the CEO as very unprofessional and unpatriotic, inciting members of the public and accusing it of economic sabotage.

The House demanded the suspension of the CEO to ensure an in-depth investigation into the allegations and to restore confidence in the regulatory authority.