The upper legislative chamber, on Tuesday, experienced a rowdy session after three senators engaged in a heated debate.

Danjuma Goje, senator representing Gombe central, and Sahabi Yau, senator representing Zamfara north, expressed displeasure over the seats assigned to them, and complained to Opeyemi Bamidele, majority leader.

The senate is using its refurbished chamber, two years after renovation began on it.

According to the standing rules of the upper legislative chamber, senators should sit in order of rank.

The senate’s Easter and Sallah recess was postponed to accommodate the completion of the renovation of both chambers of the national assembly.

However, while Senate President Godswill Akpabio read his welcome address, the heated argument among the three senators began.

It was learnt that Goje and Yau, sitting on the second row on the right side of the aisle, did not like the seats allocated to them by the senate committee on services.

Sunday Karimi, senator representing Kogi west, is chair of the senate services committee.

The four-term senators subsequently insisted that they should have been assigned seats on the front row on the extreme right — opposite the row of the majority leader and the deputy senate president.

After the argument, Kawu Sumaila, senator representing Kano south, called for a “point of order” which was ignored.

Thereafter, Bamidele moved a motion for a closed-session.

The Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) says the rehabilitation of the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company (KRPC) will be completed by the end of 2024 after years of being shut down due to lack of maintenance.

The Managing Director of KRPC, Mustafa Sugungun, disclosed this on Monday during an oversight visit to the refinery by members of the Senate Adhoc Committee on Petroleum Downstream led by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah.

He explained that the 110,000-barrel-per-day refinery will start producing at 60 percent capacity by the end of the year, while full production will take place subsequently.

The KRPC boss explained that the rehabilitation work, which is presently at 40 percent, is expected to be completed within the stipulated time frame

He said, “Our rehabilitation is going on well and steadily according to the plan we have. We are planning to bring this plant to 60 percent nominal capacity by December 31st, 2024.

“Currently, we are heading towards 40 percent of rehabilitation. We remain committed to bringing back the plant at least 60 percent of our nominal capacity.

“The overall capacity of Kaduna Refinery is 110, 000 barels per day, but we are starting with only 60 percent of that. And in less than one year, we will attain the 110,000 capacity.

“So this initial plant operation is for 60 percent Nigerian crude and 50, 000 barrels of imported crude. Imported crude is mainly for lubricants and other petrochemical aspect of it.”

On his part, Senator Ubah said that the oversight visit was part of the collaborative effort of the President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to ensure that all the nation’s refineries are brought back to life, and consequently enable the country to end the importation of petroleum products.

The Kaduna refinery was established in 1980 to supply petroleum products to Nigeria’s Northern region, with a capacity of producing 110,000 barrels per day of crude oil.

For many years, the Kaduna refinery, just like it’s counterparts in Portharcourt and Warri, has been out of production, leaving the country to rely heavily on imported petroleum products.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says the ongoing shortfall in supply of petroleum products and queues for the products will be cleared out by May 1.

Femi Soneye, NNPC’s spokesperson, said this on Tuesday in Lagos.

Soneye said the company currently has more than 1.5 billion litres of product available, enough to last for at least 30 days.

However, he said some individuals might be exploiting the situation to maximise profit.

“Unfortunately, we experienced a three-day disruption in distribution due to logistical issues, which has since been resolved,” he said.

“However, as you know, overcoming such disruptions typically requires double the amount of time to return to normal operations.

“Some folks are taking advantage of this situation to maximize profits.

“Thankfully, product scarcity has been minimal lately, but these folks might be exploiting the situation for unwarranted gain.

“The lines will be cleared out between today and tomorrow.”

Petrol queues resurfaced in filling stations amid a scarcity of the commodity, leading to an increase in transport costs.

On April 25, the NNPC attributed the situation to logistics issues, assuring Nigerians that “they have been resolved”.

However, on April 29, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) said it does not have access to petroleum products.