By Amgber Kumo
The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has
blamed the Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources Oil, Senator
Heineken Lokpobiri, for the current
crisis ravaging the nation’s oil industry and causing untold hardship for the residents.
The group alleges that Lokpobiri’s lack
of capacity and competence were
evident in how agencies under his
ministry had continued to mismanage
the oil sector and inflict pain on the
people.
The council insisted that the
minister’s lack of knowledge of the
workings of the oil sector was eroding
the gains of President Bola Ahmed
Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
IYC, in a statement issued in Port
Harcourt yesterday, was reacting to
the latest resumption date of the Port
Harcourt Refinery as announced by
the Nigerian National Petroleum
Company Limited (NNPCL).
Recall that the NNPCL chief
financial officer, Umar Ajiya, had, at
a media briefing in Abuja, said the
refinery would commence operations
in September 2024.
However, in a statement signed by its
secretary-general, Maobuye Nangi
Obu and four others, they said the
new date, which they noted might not
also be feasible, had confirmed their
position that under Lokpobiri, nothing
good could come out of the oil sector.
IYC alleged that Lokpobiri’s
reputation for inaction clearly raised
doubts about his ability to push and
implement the needed reforms to
make Nigerians enjoy the availability
and cost-effective prices of petroleum
products.
