The Network of Oil Producing Communities in Nigeria (NOPCN) has sharply criticized the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) for allegedly misleading both President Bola Tinubu and Nigerians regarding the operational status of the Port-Harcourt refinery.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the group claimed that the petroleum products being touted as freshly refined were, in fact, “dead stocks” left in the refinery’s storage tanks since 2016.
The NOPCN, led by its President Igeniwari Edward and Comrade Omototsho Ogbe, accused NNPCL of creating the false impression that the refinery was operating at full capacity by evacuating old, unsellable products into trucks.
The group backed its claims with comments from Timothy Mgbere, Secretary of the Alesa Community Stakeholders, who alleged that the refinery had loaded only six trucks of products, instead of the 200 trucks NNPCL claimed would be dispatched daily.
Mgbere said, “The Port-Harcourt refinery only loaded six trucks on Tuesday, despite claiming that 200 trucks would be picked up from the refinery daily. The many trucks parked within the premises were tucked up with dead stock and off-spec of old products.”
The NOPCN further criticized the NNPCL for shutting down the refinery sooner than had been publicly announced, accusing the organization of “running out of lies” and failing to deceive the President any longer.
“It also doesn’t surprise us that the NNPCL shut down the refinery sooner than they claimed it was operating. That’s because they ran out of lies and couldn’t cajole the President any further,” the group stated.
The group called for the removal of Mallam Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, accusing him of misrepresenting the refinery’s rehabilitation efforts and misleading the Nigerian public about the progress of the state-owned refinery.
“Kyari should be so sober right now, and I believe he is already aware that the much-celebrated 60,000 capacity segment of the refinery they claimed to have rehabilitated was shut down 2 days ago and no activity is happening there any longer.”
The statement continued: “The President should not wait any further before he sacks Mele Kyari and all his accomplices in this national monumental trick they pulled on Nigerians on Tuesday.”
The NOPCN also demanded that Kyari be held accountable for over N17 trillion reportedly invested in the rehabilitation of the Port-Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries.
“Nigerians should also join our Network to say no to conversion of any of the refineries to a blending plant. We all know the environmental degradation our people have been facing over oil exploration and bunkering activities.
We don’t want any further hazard on our land. Kyari should just deliver exactly what the government paid for and stop fighting our leaders in the host communities,” the group said.
These claims come on the heels of reports from local community leaders, such as Mgbere, who appeared on a national television show on Thursday, where he corroborated the NOPCN’s position by stating that the refinery had only loaded six trucks of products, with many trucks at the refinery filled with old, unusable stock.
The NOPCN is now calling for transparency and accountability from both NNPCL and government officials, urging the President to take immediate action to address the alleged mismanagement of Nigeria’s refineries.