Public affairs analyst Mustapha Mohammed has called on Ikenga Ugochinyere, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Downstream Petroleum, to give the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) room to rehabilitate the Port Harcourt refinery and other government-owned facilities.
Dispute over refinery rehabilitation
- Mohammed issued the appeal in a statement on Sunday, urging the lawmaker not to turn the rehabilitation programme into a political dispute.
- Ugochinyere had earlier said he would use his parliamentary authority to seek explanations from NNPCL Chief Executive Officer Bashir Bayo Ojulari and the company’s executive vice president about the work being carried out on the state-owned refineries.
- Mohammed said the projects were part of an intentional Federal Government policy being implemented by NNPCL and argued that neither the National Assembly nor any of its committees had violated legislation in connection with the programme.
- He said Ugochinyere and those supporting his position should permit the rehabilitation work to proceed instead of generating what he described as needless controversy around an ongoing government intervention.
- Mohammed also rejected allegations that NNPCL was concealing information about the refinery projects. He described such claims as a rear-guard political tactic by individuals using low-cost publicity stunts to suggest that the government was inactive.
He said the performance of the government’s refinery renewal plan should ultimately be assessed through its implementation record and final results, rather than through political statements.
