Against the backdrop of huge sums of money being expended on the importation of refined petroleum products, Salmon Akanni Oladiti, the deputy national chairman of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) unit of NUPENG, has called on Federal government to, without further delay, rehabilitate all the moribund oil refineries in the country.
Oladiti stated that the rehabilitation of the refineries would also ensure maximum production locally and provide job for unemployed graduates.
Delivering a May Day public lecture with, “Developing Financial Literacy for Stress-free Retirement” under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council at its Iyaganku Press Centre tasked the Federal Government to be more sincere and focused in tackling the vandalisation of oil pipelines across the country.
According to the labour leader, the Government could do this by holding the joint security operatives of the Nigerian Army, the Navy and the Air Force responsible for the effective surveillance and protection of the pipelines rather than ceding the responsibility to private security agencies.
While accusing the Federal Government of failure to take decisive measures on pipeline vandals, Oladiti insisted that the authorities should, as a matter of necessity, take adequate care of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its infrastructural facilities.
“It is the hen that has been laying golden egg for the nation and in order to put a total halt to oil pipeline vandalisation in Nigeria, there is the urgent need for the government to issue marching orders to the security agencies notably the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Police to guard the pipeline jealously, and the vandalisation will stop.
He also said: “what is the duty of existing security outfits who are being paid by the tax payers?
“It was when international community accuses Nigeria of losing of 160,000 barrels of crude oil daily, then the federal government thought of Pipeline Protection Agency, assuming nobody issued any accusation possibly the trend will continue.
REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan
