HON. ISIAKA MOVE TO EXPOSE ROT IN NNPC
IN AN INTERVIEW WITH EAGLEEYES POST, HONOURABLE ISIAKA AYOKUNLE IBRAHIM, MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, EXPRESSED DISSATISFACTIONS ON ISSUES SURROUNDING THE NATION’S FOUR REFINERIES. HON. ISIAKA IS REPRESENTING IFO/ EWEKORO FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WHAT PROMPTED YOUR MOVING A MOTION ON ISSUES OF TURN ARROUND MAINTENANCE (TAM) OF NATIONS FOUR REFERENCES?
It has always been my dream to contribute immensely in the National development and particularly in the oil sector.
Coming from the industry, it has always been my dream to make impact on National Development and economic growth. National Assembly has afforded me the privilege and platform to move this motion on something that is close to my heart.
We have the four refineries; they are epileptic and not even optimally utilized. They are far below at 11% and every day, we allocate crude oil to them so, there is cause for worry. As of the date I moved that motion, I foresaw we are going to have fuel scarcity in the country.
After 3 or 4 weeks, of moving the motion, there was panic in the buying of petroleum products. Again, they way we have been managing some of these things are not the right way. The motion is not only on turn around maintenance (TAM) but, the state of the four refineries.
Over time, there has been no evaluation report. No one has valued the assets or tell us the status of the components of these four refineries. The only thing we hear is that they want to do rehabilitation. We have managed these things for too long. Hence, I feel there is every need for National Assembly’s intervention and see what actually their status are.
Again, a lot of organizations have been issued licenses in this country for modular and regular refineries. Many of these organizations only use these licenses to assess crude oil. They are neither building nor constructing these refineries for us.
So, I feel it is high time we need to find out what went wrong, and what is going wrong and how to get these four refineries to start working they way they should.
When we talk about the assets of refineries, don’t forget that all the refineries are on land. You have pipeline network routed from loading point of crude to the refineries. What is the status of the network of these pipelines? Bearing in mind that the pipelines are buried in salty water areas, corrosion must have set in. It is one thing to say you want to revamp refineries and it is another to say you want to build refineries, to pump crude.
Another issue is the 445, 000 barrels of crude allocated for local utilization. I know that we are not using up to 81,000. What happened to the rest?
These are the things that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and operators of our refineries need to clarify.
DO YOU THE CRISIS IN APC PRESENT ANY DANGER FOR THE PARTY?
Misunderstanding is part of the game. APC is a beautiful bride and is such a setting where you see intellectuals, there is bound to be disagreements. When you have intelligent people especially from diverse ethno-religious backgrounds, there is every tendency for diverse opinions but, at the centre of all these, APC, as a party, always have the interest of the people at heart and they always try to put the interest of the people first. But, I’m happy we have a capable leader who though, the road might be bumpy, is capable of getting to the desired destination and of course I cannot dispute the fact there is room for improvement but, we will get there.
The recent APC State Congress in Osun State. In Ogun State, right from the ward, and to the state I’ve not seen any State with such equal or less numbers of local or wards that have not had issues overtime. But Osun state is a pace setter and successfully did their APC State Congress without any hitch
APC ZONE GOVERNOR TICKET TO OGUN WEST. WHAT PROMPTED THIS DEVELOPMENT?
It is long overdue, and when you are talking about Ogun APC, somebody spear headed it and that person is Senator Ibikunle Amosun. Since the creation of Ogun State, Ogun West has never produced a Governor to rule the State. That tells you there is stiff competition when it comes to Ogun State. So the Governor feels the time has come for Ogun West to produce the next Governor of Ogun State and I hope that Ogun West will not let this opportunity pass them by. I also hope that they will put personal interest aside and bring somebody who will represent the people well.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2019?
I have enjoyed the goodwill of my constituents. I think I have done well. So I will be seeking their votes again in 2019. I hope to come back to the House of Representatives and I believe my people will support me as they have been doing.
