The Senate committee on downstream petroleum has resolved to take a tour of the nation’s refineries.
The committee will afterwards invite the leadership of the downstream petroleum sector to have an interactive session with them and agree among themselves on how to revive the refineries to get back to work.
Chairman Senate Committee on Downstream Petroleum sector, Senator Sumaila Kawu (Kano South) on Tuesday reiterated the resolve of the Senate that Nigerian public refineries must work to bring succor to the people.
Sumaila made the disclosure at the end of strategic meeting of the committee to chart a way forward for the sector.
According to Kawu “if you look at the challenges facing the country today, it boils down to the petroleum sector crisis”.
According to him, the committee has agreed that getting the refineries to work again will reduce petroleum pump price, which will make “Nigerians to start smiling again”.
He said the crucial meeting shows how serious the Senate is on the matter, adding that “we are the representatives of the people, everybody is feeling it in his body. We must do something drastically to end the suffering of Nigerians”.
He added “We want to have a situation where we refine our crude in Nigeria, reduce the pressure on the exchange rate for the economy to move forward”.
Senator Sumaila Kawu, who is also the Chairman Senate Ad-hoc Committee investigating turn around maintenance (TAM) of Nigerian four refineries that has consumed over N11 trillion naira since 2010 said the two assignments are almost the same, except that the Ad-hoc committee has additional responsibility outside the purview of the Downstream Petroleum committee.
He said after fixing the refineries, the Ad-hoc committee will hold a public hearing to ask Nigerians of their views on the future of the refineries: do we continue to retain them as government owned companies or give them to private investors.
He said they have agreed that the two committees will work together to bring results to Nigerians, adding that “all the Senate is looking for is results”.
