By Isah Aliyu Chiroma
The Nigerian 10th Senate has rejected a motion that sought to look into the country’s decrepit refineries.
Karimi Steve (APC, Kogi West) made the motion during the plenary on Wednesday, where he called on the Senate to establish an ad hoc committee to look into all contracts given for the rehabilitation of all four refineries controlled by the Federal Government between 2010 and 2023.
Senator Karimi urged the Senate Committee to visit all government refineries to assess their conditions, thwart attempts to waste resources, put an end to all corruption, in addition to questioning officials from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) regarding their involvement in the refineries’ inability to produce oil.
When the committee is established, Mr. Steve has said, shall request that NNPCL and other petroleum agencies provide to the Senate for possible review of their plans for using green energy sources in accordance with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
He stated that Nigeria had spent N11.35 trillion on the renovation of refineries from 2010 till date, adding that from 2010 to date N11.35 trillion had been spent on the restoration of refineries.
Due to Nigeria’s limited capacity for refining, he added, the Federal Government spent more than N6 trillion between 2010 and 2020 on gasoline subsidies. During the same time period, about twice as much was also spent on the rehabilitation of refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Warri.
The Kogi senator pointed out that even in their current state of moribundity, the FG’s refineries are expected to cost N4.8 trillion to operate between 2010 and 2020.
Mr. Steve expressed concern that the Port Harcourt Refinery Company is still inactive despite seven years of restoration work at an estimated expenditure of more than N12 billion by the Nigerian government between 2013 and 2019.
He added that from 2014 to 2019, more than N28 billion had been spent on modernizing the Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited.
He continued by saying that over N2 billion had also been spent over the previous ten years on the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Companies renovation, but it was still a waste of money.
However, the bulk of the senators who contributed to the debate decided to reject the resolution and prayers.
Therefore, it was stated by Senate President Godswill Akpabio that the motion would be stepped down until relevant ministries are appointed by the president.
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