AKHERE Godwin, Benin
Former Deputy National President of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Eddy Ossai has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari to be cautious of the “racket” in the oil sector if he wants to succeed in his desire to purge that vital, sector.
Speaking to journalists in Benin City, Wednesday, the factional state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) also called on the federal government to look at other sectors like appropriate payments of import and export duties being overseen by the Nigerian Customs Service and Ministry of Finance and urged the president that he works to recover stolen funds, he should check leakages.
He said “With his stake, I believe our pipelines will work; subsidy or no subsidy, private depots or no private depots, I just pray that they don’t lure him into the racket and if they don’t lure him into the racket, he will give a better leadership.
“If our pipelines work today, there will be products everywhere. In the network under the PPMC, we have Warri refinery and there are depots attached to it; we have Benin depot, we have Suleja depot products go through these lines, we have Kaduna refinery and products go through the lines to the refinery in Kaduna. If these pipelines are working and there are no vandals, things will change. If I see the vandals, I see the cartel is still at work; go and do this and that so that these lines will not work.”
He continued; “Look at the issue of subsidy, you take our crude away, refine it then you bring in maybe PMS, Ago, DPK; we have other by products, where are the by-products? If those by-products are not here where are they going to? Have they been accounted for, will they not take our jobless Nigerians out of the labour market? So there are so many issues which I think the way ye is going by the grace of God if he is not lured into the racket, he will do something. I just pray that he is not lured into it.”
Ossai who also carpeted some labour leaders who are on the side of government instead of protecting the workers said: “Buhari should also look into other none oil sectors of the economy, those sectors are also not been used to help Nigeria. If Nigerians for instance pay the appropriate import and export duties, how much is Nigerian Customs Service making? We know how much they make. There should be a better biometric payment process to retrieve most of these monies being lost; I will suggest that while Buhari is doing recovery, he should block the leakages because he will think he is trying to recover and more will be leaking, the people who are involved will distract you and continue in their stealing so I advice our president that he should check the blockages, Nigeria is a country that we should not be suffering.”
