Falana Calls for Ban on Petrol Importation in Nigeria

Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has urged the federal government to cease petrol importation and ensure that the 450,000 barrels of crude oil allocated daily for domestic consumption are supplied to local refineries. Speaking on Sunday Politics, Falana emphasized that making crude oil available to domestic refiners would lessen Nigeria's reliance on imported petroleum products and alleviate the economic difficulties arising from the removal of the petrol subsidy in May 2023.

He pointed out that while the subsidy regime was unsustainable and marred by fraud, Nigerians have not seen adequate benefits from the increased revenue to government tiers since its removal. Falana noted discrepancies in reported petrol consumption figures, questioning the justification for continued imports despite operational local refineries.

He criticized the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for claiming to supply over 98 million litres per day while local consumption was reported at 68 million litres per day.