By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa has called on the organised labour to carry out an independent auditing of the refineries claimed by the federal government to have been rehabilitated in the past four years.
He gave the charge on Channels Television breakfast programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ monitored in Abuja on Thursday by Prompt News against the backdrop of the latest promise by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the Port Harcourt refinery will start operation by December 2023.
Adegboruwa advised the organised labour to carry out its own auditing of the Port Harcourt refinery and other refineries to determine when they will actually begin operations rather than relying on what the federal government is telling Nigerians.
Tinubu had on Wednesday told the leadership of the organised labour represented by Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Comrade Festus Osifo, President of TradeUnion Congress (TUC) that “Port Harcourt refinery will start operation by December 2023 after the completion of the ongoing rehabilitation contract between NNPCL and Italian firm, Maire Tecnimont SpA”.
But Adegboruwa has told the labour unions not to get carried away by yet another government promises that the refineries will become operational soonest rather they should carry out an independent audit of the refineries especially the Port Harcourt refinery to help Nigerians make sense of why the refineries have refused to work after the millions of dollars voted for the rehabilitation of the refineries.
According to him, the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari initiated the turn-around maintenance of the major refineries- Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, targeted at solving the daily petroleum product needs of Nigerians and also set deadlines but till date none of the refineries is producing a pint of fuel despite the huge amount of money appropriated for the rehabilitation of the refineries. READ ALSO:
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He frowned at the insincerity of the federal government in the so-called rehabilitation of the country’s non-functional refineries including Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, pointing out that the administration of ex-President Buhari through the former Minister of State, Petroleum, Chief Timipre Silva had several times told Nigerians that refineries especially the Port Harcourt refinery will start operation in 2022 or early 2023 but that did not happen.
Adegboruwa who is a Human Rights Lawyer and Activist insists that the oil companies, host communities and all those who have a stake in the oil industry to be involved in the resolution of the fuel crisis that has bedevilled Nigeria.
