Lawyer queries N11tr spent on refineries

A Lagos lawyer, Abdul Imran, has filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited on status of the nation’s four refineries.

In the request addressed to Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, Imran sought confirmation of a report by House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee that the Federal Government has spent N11.3 trillion on rehabilitation of refineries from 2010 till date.

In the September 24 request, the lawyer asked: “If the four refineries are fully functional, what would be the disadvantage of same to the economy.

If your answer is in the negative (that is, it is not going to be of disadvantage), then why do the four refineries still moribund despite the trillions that have been spent on them?”

He said in 2021, former President Muhammadu Buhari allegedly borrowed $1.5 billion for rehabilitation of Port Harcourt refinery.

Imran noted Kyari had assured Nigerians that the refineries would work before Buhari administration ended.

He sought to know why those promises failed, and whether NNPCL “has the right to justify the insensitive and callous upward review of price of PMS to over N900 per litre”.

The lawyer also sought to know whether it is true NNPCL withheld about N8.48 trillion it claimed as petrol subsidies, and whether it did not remit $2 billion in taxes to Federal Government in 2022, as reported by NEITI and others.