Dino Melaye, a former senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to halt plans to spend $1.5bn on renovating the Port Harcourt refinery.
This comes as former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar criticized the Federal Government’s decision to spend such a huge sum on the facility, describing the Buhari administration’s plan as an “unwise use of scarce funds.”
On Wednesday, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), approved $1.5 billion for the repair of the Port Harcourt refinery.
Reacting to the decision, Melaye said this was a move to “appropriate our common matrimony to a few individuals” and called for a reversal of the decision.
“You want to use over N700 billion to renovate a dead refinery. Port Harcourt refinery is dead. Not only moribund, but dead,” Melaye said.
READ ALSO: Nigeria’s Resources ‘Insufficient’ To Bridge Infrastructural Gap – Osinbajo
“This money is going to be spent on embalmnent of a dead refinery. When would this stealing stop in this country? When will this inconsiderate corruption stop in this country?”
Melaye, who claims to be a private investigator and the leader of an anti-corruption network, called on President Buhari to reverse FEC’s decision.
“As anti-corruption network, as patriotic citizens of this country, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately reverse this satanic, wicked, nefarious decision.
“Those who want to eat and benefit from this stealing, we are waiting, we are watching. We have no other country to call our own, we would not keep quiet in the midst of this corruption.”
The Port Harcourt refinery has the capacity to refine over 200,000 barrels of oil per day — if it works at full optimum capacity.
Port Harcourt refinery did not refine a drop of oil in September 2020, according to the latest report from the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPC).
