By Chris Udochukwu
Abuja (Precise Post) – The Peoples Democratic Party’s Vice Presidential candidate at the 2019 general election and former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi has slammed the federal government for the approval of a whopping $1.5 billion for the repairs of Port Harcourt refinery, describing it as a huge waste for a country on life support.
Obi who noted that the planned expenditure is worrisome in the light of our precarious economic situation, condemned it via his twitter handle account in reaction to the approval for the repair by the Federal Executive Council Meeting on Wednesday.
The tweets read:
“The news of the planned expenditure of a whopping $1.5 billion for Port Harcourt refinery repairs is worrisome to well-meaning Nigerians. In light of our precarious economic situation, it is a huge waste.
“Our country on life support, but sadly the managers of our affairs are worsening the situation by their financial rascality.”
Precise Post recalls that the FEC approved $1.5billion for rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery, in Rivers State.
The approval was announced on Wednesday, at the 38th virtual FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Speaking with state house correspondents, Timipre Sylva, minister of state for petroleum, said the rehabilitation will be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months.
He said the contract was awarded to Tecnimont SPA, an Italian company.
Sylva said the funding has three components from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) internally generated revenue (IGR), Afreximbank and budgetary provisions.
“The Ministry of Petroleum Resources presented a memo on the rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery for the sum of 1.5 billion, and that memo was $1.5 billion and it was approved by council today,” he said.
“So we are happy to announce that the rehabilitation of productivity refinery will commence in three phases. The first phase is to be completed in 18 months, which will take the refinery to a production of 90 percent of its nameplate capacity.
“The second phase is to be completed in 24 months and all the final stage will be completed in 44 months and consultations are approved.
“And I believe that this is good news for Nigeria.”
Sylva said discussions are in progress for the rehabilitation of other refineries, noting that “before the lifetime of this administration expires, work on all the refineries would have at least commenced”.
“As you know, there is a local content law. The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is fully part of the contracting process and has safeguarded the interest, adequately of our local contractors, so our local people will be fully involved with the Tecnimont spa,” he said.
