POLITICS
Senate Investigates N11.35trn Turnaround Maintenance on Refineries
The Senate has tasked its ad- hoc committee to investigate all contracts awarded for rehabilitation of all state owned refineries from 2010 to 2023.
This followed the adoption of a motion on “Urgent need to investigate various turnaround maintenance projects of Nigerian refineries, to uncover waste and forestall further waste of scarce public resources, by Sen.
Karimi Sunday ( APC- Kogi) at plenary on Tuesday.Presenting the motion, Sunday said state owned refineries in Nigeria had been a serious drain pipe of public finance, depriving citizens of joy of being an oil producing nation.
He said from 2010 to date Nigeria was estimated to have spent N11.35 trillion on renovation of refineries, yet unproductive, revealing that other cost in other currencies had also been spent.
Sunday said the Federal Government had spent over N6 trillion between 2010 and 2020 on fuel subsidy due to Nigeria’s low refining capacity and had spent almost twice the amount on rehabilitating and turn around maintenance projects on its refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri between 2010 and 2022.
He said in spite of the moribund condition of the four refineries, the operating costs of the refineries between 2010 and 2020 was N4.8 trillion.
“The refineries are estimated to make cumulative loss of N1.64 trillion within four years.
“Concerned that the federal government of Nigeria has carried out rehabilitation projects in Port Harcourt Refinery Company (PHRC) over a period of seven years from 2013 to 2019.”
He said phase I of the project was expected to be completed in 28 months after the contract, while phase II was to be completed in 24 months and phase III in 44 months of execution.
He, however, said the Port Harcourt refinery as at Oct. 24, remained a money pit.
He said by projections and representations from NNPCL, the renovation work ought to be completed and operations of the refinery commenced by June 2023.
Sunday said federal government in a bid to revitalise the Warri Refinery, the Federal Government had injected huge public funds between 2014 and 2019.
That particularly, around the 24 June 2022 the Federal Executive Awarded Maintenance Services for Quick Fix Repairs of Warri Refinery to Daewoo Engineering and Construction Limited at 497, 328, 500.00, dollars.
” Yet at the moment the Warri Refinery is inactive, this is different from the 2017 contract award to Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited for Tech Plant Survey of the Warri and Kaduna Refineries at 2, 025, 000.32 Euros,” he said.
He also said it was disturbing that the Kaduna refinery and Petro-Chemical Company (KRPC) had over the past 10 years gulped N2. 266 billion in the name of rehabilitation, yet it remained unproductive.
“The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) approved a renovation deal with Daewoo Engineering and Construction Limited to renovate Kaduna refinery in February 2023.
” And it is intended to restore the refinery to production of 110,000 barrels of petrol per day, at least 60 percent capacity by early 2024,” he said.
He expressed worry that if a thorough investigation of the past and current rehabilitation project was not undertaken by the Senate, the circle of awarding unproductive turn around maintenance contracts may not abate.
This, he said would result in retaining the status quo, adding that rehabilitation contracts have become conduit pipes for siphoning pubic funds.
He said Nigerian citizens had continued to groan over high cost of petroleum products due to the moribund situation of the state owned refineries.
Contributing, Sen. Isa Jibril (APC-Kogi), who seconded the motion said the motion brought to the fore, the worrisome situation in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
He said it was worrission that N4.8 trillion was spent on operating cost when the refineries were not functional.
Sen. Adams Oshiomhole(APC- Edo) said the senate must ensure its proper oversight functions to ensure Nigerians enjoy value for their tax.
“We need to unravel while the refineries that were working before suddenly became moribund.
“The amount so far spent on the refineries can build brand new ones, Senators must take the issues with all seriousness it deserves,” he said.
Sen. Adamu Aliero said the refineries had remained moribund in spite of huge sums spent on turnaround maintenance.
He alleged that the moribund nature of the refineries was a deliberate sabotage by some persons who wanted to continue petroleum products importation into the country.
The Senate also urged the committee to ascertain progress on ongoing works in all refineries to forestall waste and corruption.
It also urged the committee to interrogate the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the NUPRC, NNPCL, BPE, on the best approach to commercializing or ensuring profitability of the state owned refineries.
It urged the committee to invite the NNPCL, NUPRC and LNG to explain the nation’s preparation for green energy sources in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Deputy President of Senate, Barau Jubrin, who presided over plenary said those found to have taken resources meant for functioning of refineries should be brought to book.
He thereafter named Sen. Isah Jibrin (APC -Kogi as Chairman of the ad-hoc committee.
Jubril will investigate the matter alongside the Chairmen of committees on Petroleum Resources Downstream, Upstream, Gas, Finance, Appropriation and Public Accounts.
Other members of the committee included Sen. Abdullahi Yahaya (PDP- Kebbi) Sen. Adamu Alero (PDP-Kebbi), Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah(APC-Anambra) and Sen. Sunday Karimi Sunday (APC- Kogi).
The committee was to present its report in four weeks. (NAN)
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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