By Olugbenga Salami
No fewer than 100 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), have appended their signatures to mobilise their members and shut down the corporate headquarters of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), for failing to activate the Warri refinery.
This was, even as, the organisations have passed a vote of no confidence on the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, describing him as clog in the wheels of development of the energy sector of Nigeria.
The Coalition requested that Mr. Kyari, the NNPCL and its agencies should come out and explain to Nigerians how the 3 billion dollars spent on rehabilitation and activation of the Warri Refinery was spent.
Coming under the umbrella of Coalition of Civil Society Groups against Corruption in Energy Sector, the group said, as long as Kyari continues to decide what becomes the faith of over 150m Nigerians using petroleum products, and by extension, the fate of over 250m Nigerians who suffer the consequences of what happens in the energy sector; President Bola Tinubu will not achieve the desired revolution in the sector.
Engr. Efe Irabor, the Spokesperson for the CSOs, via a statement on Tuesday, urged Nigerians to prepare for the worst, as Kyari did not have intention of rehabilitating and putting into operations the refineries in Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.
Irabor recalled how the NNPCL moved to frustrate the Dangote refinery and the resultant effect on the market force, saying, if it was allowed to operate with its good intentions, and crude was willingly sold to it, the Dangote refinery would have crashed the fuel price and made life bearable for the masses.
“You will recall that sometime in June, the Dangote Refinery said oil majors were blocking its access to locally produced crude and the regulator (NNPCL and NMDPRA) were allowing fuel traders to import high-sulphur gasoil, thereby undermining its refinery.
“But when some lawmakers from the National Assembly visited the plant a few weeks later, Alhaji Aliko Dangote insisted on a test of the gasoil from his plant with others sold in the local market. The result showed that Dangote Refinery’s diesel had a sulphur content of 87.6 ppm, whereas the other two samples showed sulphur levels exceeding 1800 ppm and 2,000 ppm, respectively.
“Meanwhile, the downstream regulator, NMDPRA had alleged that the gasoil processed by the Dangote Refinery was between 650 to 1200 parts per million of sulphur, thus inferior to imported products. Meanwhile, our findings revealed that Nigeria’s regulation allows for the sulphur content in gasoil to be about 50 ppm”, the Coalition said.
The statement also averred that the NNPCL planned to convert the refineries in Port Harcourt and Warri to blending plants, just to encourage cronies to continue importing products with high density of sulphur, not minding the environmental effects on the locals and the ripple effects on the masses that use these products.