Senate Investigates N11.35tr Maintenance Expenditure On Refineries

By James Itodo

The Senate has mandated its ad- hoc committee to investigate all contracts awarded for rehabilitation of all state owned refineries between 2010 and 2023.

The decision is sequel to the adoption of a motion with the title: “Urgent need to investigate various turnaround maintenance projects of Nigerian refineries, to uncover waste and forestall further waste of scarce public resources by Senator Karimi Sunday representing Kogi West during plenary in Abuja

Senator Sunday in his lead debate alleged that state owned refineries in Nigeria have been a serious drain pipe of public finance, depriving citizens of joy of being an oil producing nation.

According to the lawmaker between 2010 to date, Nigeria was estimated to have spent N11.35 trillion on renovation of refineries, yet they are unproductive.

He also revealed that other cost in other currencies which include 592.9 million dollars, 4. 877million euros and 3. 456 million pounds, had also been spent.

Senator 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 has spent almost twice the amount on rehabilitating and turnaround maintenance projects on its refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri between 2010 and 2022.

He said despite the moribund state of the four refineries, the operating costs between 2010 and 2020 was estimated at N4.8 trillion.

He said Nigerian citizens have continued to groan over high cost of petroleum products due to the moribund situation of the state owned refineries.

Deputy President of Senate, Jibrin Barau, who presided over the plenary said any individual or groups found to have taken funds meant for functioning of refineries in the country should be brought to book.

Edited By Grace Namiji