The country’s largest crude refinery, located in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, is said to have undergone “mechanical completion,” and its “flare start-off,” has been denounced by the Labour Party leadership as a hoax.
This came at the same time as the Labour Party was being warned by the ruling All Progressives Congress not to mislead the public, emphasizing that not every topic should be politicized.
This news occurs one week after the Federal Government, represented by Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, claimed during a penultimate Thursday media tour that the Port Harcourt refinery was almost finished.
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With the new plant producing 210,000 barrels per day and the old plant producing 60,000 barrels per day, the two-unit refinery has a combined capacity of 210,000 barrels per day for refining.
However, the Labour Party’s leadership maintains that this is not the case and that it is simply another ruse by the APC government to deceive Nigerians.
The chief spokesperson for the Labour Party Campaign Organization, Yunusa Tanko, asserted in an exclusive interview with our correspondent that the party has reliable information indicating the plant’s start-up was stage-managed.
“We hear that they have finished the mechanical works,” he remarked. This specific gas flare at the refinery in Port Harcourt is a fraud. It’s just another falsehood to trick the people of Nigeria. We used to know that some oil would be produced concurrently with the gas flaring up.
However, there isn’t a single oil drop in this instance. For this reason, we contend that the specific gas flaring they are attempting to get everyone to discuss is false. Nothing like it existed. They haven’t been able to finish working on that refinery. It’s untrue.
“Let them disprove our claims if they are confident in the fact. In order to trick the people of Nigeria, some individuals just went and turned on the power generator to ignite that specific gas flaring.
In response to the event, APC Deputy National Organising Secretary Nze Chidi Duru begged for patience, stating that the Port Harcourt refinery’s operation is a privately sponsored initiative that is unrelated to the FG.
Duru also cautioned the opposition parties against using their criticisms of the current administration as an opportunity to win cheap points; instead, they should always be constructive and aim to propose answers to the nation’s numerous challenges.
The refinery is operational and in operation. However, since it is an initiative spearheaded by the private sector, it has nothing to do with the government. We therefore have every reason to believe that it will function if the FG has declared that it is. They are aware that if it fails, it will harm their reputation and people might stop believing in them.
However, as I already stated, it is unrelated to the APC administration. The organization responsible for it is Indorama Petrochemicals, not the federal government. That’s the reason I stated we shouldn’t use anything to play politics in this nation. It’s a private sector-driven project, he said.