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Buhari spent more than $19billion on revamping four refineries without result – Nasarawa gov

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Barely two weeks after his exit, the records of former President Muhammadu Buhari, have come to to the fore with one of them indicating a damning verdict, as he was said to have sunk a whopping $19billion in trying to rehabilitate the nation’s four refineries, without anything to show for it.

Abdullahi Sule, Governor of Nassarawa State, who used the former President abysmal failure to make a case for supporting the removal on petroleum products, compared the huge wastage to the amount Dangote refinery, cost to give Nigeria a facility with the single chain production in the world.

None of Nigeria’s four refineries, located in Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Warri is currently operational despite the huge amount sunk to resuscitate them, most of the funds borrowed from foreign lending agencies, the latest being the securing of $1.5million loan for that of Port Harcourt.

Bemoaning the situation, the governor, said: “Look at how much the President Buhari administration spent on fixing the refineries. In the eight years, he spent more money than the $19 billion that Dangote spent in building a refinery. That is one and a half times the size of our three refineries combined.”

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A guest on Sunrise Daily, a breakfast programm of Channels Television on Thursday, Sule, pinned the payments of subsidy on Nigeria’s non-functional refineries, adding: “From the government side, I think we didn’t do a good job. When the (former) President (Buhari) came in in 2015, prices of crude oil dropped by less than 30 dollars. At that time, there was zero subsidy.

“Our three refineries in Nigeria today have a total of 450,000 barrels per day, Dangote is 650,000. He spent $19 billion on building it. We spent, not building a new one, but in maintaining these refineries; more than $19 billion in eight years, yet they have not been maintained.”

The Dangote Refinery, Africa’s biggest oil refinery, which took off in 2017, drew Nigerians and global personalities in different fields of life, including four African Presidents at its commissioning on May 22, 2023 by Buhari.

Sule, who also lamented the complexity of maintaining the refineries due to their diverse components, added: “The refinery is actually a component for water, crude, and diesel, about five or six different components that constitute a refinery. The moment the government says we are going to spend $2 billion this year on the refinery. The $2 billion is spent and as far as the President is concerned, they have given $2 billion.

“Now when it goes to the three refineries that we have in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna. Then they say, you now take $700 million, you now take $800 million – by the time they take that, it goes to fix maybe only one component out of the four components that are all bad. The ideal resolve would have been to allocate the major funds to one of the refining states to fix it totally before allocating the remainder to the other states.

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“So, zero work is done. These are the true realities of what is happening, and that is why none of the refineries is working. These are truly the problem, we have not really managed this thing well.”

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BREAKING: Entire PDP structure in Delta empties into APC

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Sheriff Oborevwori, Governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, his predecessor and all members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, on Wednesday emptied into the All Progressives Congress (APC), ending months of speculations about the political development in the oil-rich state.

James Manager, Senator formerly representing Delta South at the National Assembly, who announced the move in Asaba, the state capital, shortly after a meeting that lasted over six hours at Government House, Asaba, said the state could not afford to allow itself drift away.

“All PDP members in the state, including the governor, former Governor Okowa, the Speaker, the state party chairman, all the local government chairmen and others, have agreed to move to the APC. We cannot continue to be in a sinking boat,” he said.

Aniagwu Charles, Delta State Commissioner for Information, who confirmed the development, said the defection, was a collective decision of Delta PDP leaders and stakeholders, adding: “There is a need for us to adjust our drinking patterns. And in adjusting that drinking pattern, we needed to make a decision that would further help to cement the development in our state, to build the court of law that has existed in our state, to further advance the cause of security and the welfare of our people, and, to a large extent, ensure that development in Delta is not truncated.

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“In taking that decision, we concluded that leaving the PDP was very necessary for us to be able to collaborate and build a state that every Deltan will be proud of. We believe that what is happening, and the state of the PDP, is akin to that palm wine whose taste has changed — and there was a need for us to change the drinking party. By the grace of God, on Monday next week, we will be able to make a very big statement confirming that we are moving into the APC.”

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Edo community in protest: Fulanis still killing, raping, destroying our farms

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Agbede community in Etsako West local government area of Edo State, rose in protests on Wednesday, complaining of continued kidnapping and killing by Fulani herdsmen, who they say have taken over their bushes and those of the surrounding neighbours.

Accusing the alleged marauders of killing and maiming those who could not pay ransom, as well as raping women and dislodging farmers from their farmlands, the community, who took to the streets in demonstrations, lamented that help had refused to come from anywhere including security agencies.

Agbede, and surrounding villages, including Odighie, Egono and Awain, they said, had been under siege in the past two months while efforts to get the assistance of the police in the area had ended in futilities, accusing them of complicity, with senior police officers from the northern part of the country covering up the criminals.

“Farm destruction, killings, rapes, and kidnappings for ransom have become disturbingly common and the police, instead of protecting the communities, they seem to be aiding and abetting the Fulani herders against the aborigines.

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“The DPO at the Agbede Police Station, the Police Area Command in Auchi, and the Zone Five Office in Benin are not helping matters as we are suspecting them to be backing the herders with lining orders which is now creating fear amongst the people over their genuine protection and safety.”

Vanguard quoted a member of the community who did not want his name on the print as accusing the police of using blackmail, harassment, and detention to intimidate vigilantes and hunters who dare to challenge the Fulani invaders, while forcing the locals to sign undertakings not to confront the herders.

Still maintaining the allegation, he also claimed that those arrested in connection with the atrocities were usually promptly released within a few hours of arrest, adding: “Mamudu Momoh was attacked on his farm after he met some herdsmen taking over the farms, uprooting his cassava to feed their cows and in the process, he was attacked and injured.

“He went to the Agbede Police Division to report the case. The case was later turned against him, he was arrested and taken to Zone 5, where he was detained, and the community spent a lot of money to secure his release.

“There is another farmer in the community, Idris, who has been kidnapped by the herdsmen for over a month now and ransom has been paid, the man is yet to be released up till today. We are asking the inspector general of police to withdraw the DPO of the Agbede Police division who is a Northerner without which the Agbede community will never know peace in the hands of the herdsmen who are everywhere in our bush claiming to be hunters.

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However Moses Yamu, Chief Superintendent of Police, and spokesman of the Edo State Police Command, was quoted as debunking the allegations, saying that the officers and men of Agbede Police division have been working round the clock to deal with the herdsmen situation in the area.

Narrating how the police from the division, with a backup from Auchi Area command, had already arrested over 10 suspected kidnappers in that axis who were currently being investigated, he said the community were not fair to the police in their protest, especially to the zone 5 Command.

He was quoted as saying particularly that the protest coming less than two weeks after the Inspector General (AIG) in charge of the zone had just assumed duties, was not a good welcome package by the community for him, especially with the allegation of abetting the said crimes.

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Benue: Alia wants Fulani chased out from seized land, rejects emergency rule  

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What Benue State needs now is to secure its boarders with its neighbours and to assist it in flush out Fulani herdsmen and bandits from the land they have taken over after chasing away the original owners, who are now in various Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) camps.

Hyacinth Alia, Governor of the state, declared this stance on Wednesday, while appearing as a guest on The Morning Show, the breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS Network.

The governor, who spoke on a range of issues regarding the attacks with close to 100 persons slaughtered by invading armed groups, he identified as Fulanis from foreign lands, Alia, a Reverend Father of the Catholic Church faith, rejected the idea of imposing state of emergency in the state, saying what the people of needed at the moment was help from the Federal Government.

Stating how he was able to contain the activities of the killers in the state from 17 to just six local government areas, he said his administration had the capability to end the killings, if only it could get the needed support to further deal with the situation.

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He said: “What we need is emergency help for now. We need absolute support. The federal government is supported. They sent two armoured tanks that came in. Our situation had changed. We had a better narrative, but what we need to do is to get our people back home, to drive out the invaders, the armed invaders who have brought in people who do not even speak the Nigerian languages we speak. Let them move back to wherever they came from and allow us farmers to go back to our ancestral land. Calling for any emergency does not occur here.”

Dismissing the contention that the situation had overwhelmed him, he said his ability to scale down the spread of the attacks, was indicative that he had the capacity to tackle the incessant killings and destruction of properties in the state by killer herders, some of whom he believes are not Nigerians.

“We couldn’t have trimmed it from 17 local governments in the front lines of the attacks to nine and then now to six, which means we have the capability to do this, but we need help. And that is a fact,” he added.

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