The House of Representatives yesterday directed its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to ascertain why nine years after permits were granted to private refineries by the federal government, they were yet to commence operations.
This is just as the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the traffic department of the Nigeria Police were also asked swiftly embark on regular traffic management with a view to curbing the indiscriminate parking of articulated trucks on the nation’s highways, especially at Tafa Village along Abuja-Kaduna road.
Eighteen companies were issued licences in 2002, and another four in 2004 to build refineries in the country, but none has taken off till date.
Raising a motion on the refineries, Hon Rose Oko and 23 others lamented that the federal government was losing so much through subsidy on fuel importation, while companies licenced to carry out local refining have failed to commence operations almost a decade after obtaining operational licences. She noted that the existing four refineries in the country were only producing about 17 percent of domestic demands for petroleum products at the moment, adding that there was therefore the need to beef up local production.
Similarly, deputy minority leader of the House, Hon Samaila Abdulrahaman Kawu, called the attention of the House to the indiscriminate parking of highly inflammable articulated trucks along the Abuja-Kaduna road, while expressing worries that the dangerous nature of the products the vehicle carry.