NUPENG kicks against sale of refineries

The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers on Friday advised the Federal Government against the sale of the country’s refineries.
NUPENG said that government should rather rehabilitate the four ailing refineries.
Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, the Chairman, Western Zone of NUPENG, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, had earlier announced government’s plans to sell the refineries.
According to Alison-Madueke, the sale of the refineries will be completed by the first quarter of 2014.
NUPENG said that its advice was because the economic benefits of rehabilitating the refineries would outweigh their outright sale.
Korodo said that the sale of the refineries would contribute to unemployment, stressing that good maintenance of the refineries was needed for their optimal performance.
The union boss said that government was underfunding the refineries by refusing to carry out turn-around maintenance and cutting crude oil supplies to the refineries.
He also urged government to deal with the problem of pipeline vandalism and maintain the refineries.
Korodo said: “The proposed sale of the refineries is against the national interest and it is in the interest of a few who are lurking around the corridors of power to milk the country dry.
“Why is the government proposing the sale of these national assets without doing the needful to ensure that the refineries work at their optimal capacity?
“Nigerians and the general public deserve to know more for the desperate reasons for the proposed privatisation.”