As Nigerians continue to battle economic hardship, the Senate, has assured them that all the nation’s Government-owned oil refineries will resume operations before December, 2024 after the ongoing turnaround.
The Vice Chairman, Senate committee on Petroleum Downstream sector, Senator Jide Ipinsagba, gave the assurance weekend, while speaking with newsmen in Akure, the Ondo state capital.
Ipinsagba, who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, said that the completion of these refineries will enable the country to meet its domestic fuel demand and to ensure that internal consumption is no longer a challenge to Nigerians.
According to him ”We are expecting the refineries to kickstart this year.
“Efforts are on top gear to ensure all refineries in the country are functioning before the end of the year
”The Port Harcourt refinery today as about 90 to 95 percent optimization in terms of retrofitting and warri is about 80 percent and Kaduna is about 70 percent.
“Dangote refinery is ready to operate any moment from now so with all these internal consumption of fuel will not be problem.
“We also find out to that we have the opportunity to export our oil, that will also improve our exchange rate because we have started exportation, that is all about refinery, we are expecting the refinery to kickstart before the end of this year”
Ipinsagba who is representing Ondo North senatorial district, expressed concern over uncompleted or abandoned projects across the country.
He lamented that newly elected lawmakers always abandoned people-oriented projects started by their predecessors.
The lawmaker who assured that he would not abandon any project embarked upon by his predecessor,said he will rather complete all of them to consolidate on the new ones.
According to him “Projects should not be abandoned after the expiry of tenure in the office office, a newly elected Senator should not abandoned what the past Senator has started because it is nobody’s property it is the property of the Federal government.
”They should make sure they complete it for the betterment of the society”.
On his achievements in the Senate, lpinsagba said he has sponsored a number of bills, which has reached the second reading including a University of Information and Communication Technology University in Ikare Akoko.
“We are also working on having an Information and Communication Technology University in Ikare Akoko. it is the first of it’s kind in the whole of Africa
Ipinsagba noted that some of the projects executed by him in the last one year, Include lighting up the state owned University, the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, some places in Owo and Ikare and environs.
”We have asked them to start borehole, we are also working on an immediate response from the community on emergency issues.
The lawmaker added that “We have also distributed palliatives to people, we distributed rice and fertilizer to the farmers, through the farmers association. This is to encourage farming.”
