By Lucy Ogalue
The Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) has called for a comprehensive forensic audit of Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries covering the period from 2000 to 2023.
Dr Omoniyi Akinsiju, Chairman of IMPI, said this in a statement on Friday in Abuja.
Akinsiju also faulted allegation by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that successive All Progressives Congress (APC) administrations had spent 18 billion dollars on refinery rehabilitation.
The IMPI chairman dismissed the claim as misleading, insisting that decades of mismanagement and opaque spending predated APC rule and deserves full scrutiny.
“We do not object to an audit, but limiting it to the APC years alone is a disservice to transparency.
“A credible audit must trace all disbursements from the year 2000 onward, which is when Nigeria’s refinery woes deepened under civilian rule,” he said.
Akinsiju provided a historical breakdown of the various Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) contracts awarded since the 1990s, many of which he said delivered little to no improvement.
He cited specific cases, including a 1994 contract awarded to Chrome Oil Services Limited for the Port Harcourt refinery, which reportedly yielded poor results in spite a 216 million dollar spend.
The IMPI boss recalled how successive administrations spent over 4.6 billion dollars between 2000 and 2015, yet left the refineries in disrepair.
He said that this included administrations led by former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan collectively.
He pointed to a 2015 NNPC internal report which revealed that no proper maintenance had occurred since 2001, with aging infrastructure and untraceable components stalling operations.
On the role of the APC administrations, Akinsiju said that while late former President Muhammadu Buhari did commit resources to refinery rehabilitation, the process was fundamentally different from past TAM exercises.
He referenced contracts awarded in 2021 for full-scale rehabilitation and quoted former NNPC Group Chief Executive, Mele Kyari to explain the distinction.
“We are not doing turnaround maintenance; we are doing rehabilitation of the refineries, and this is very different.
“It means that we are replacing certain major components. In rehabilitation, we normally do not shut down the plant completely.
“We repair a segment of it, and then it starts working, and then you move to the next segment.
“You continue to scale up, which is why, within the four years, the contractor would have completely left your premises,” he quoted Kyari as saying.
Akinsiju said that a full-spectrum audit would help Nigeria account for billions of dollars and shape future oil and gas policies, particularly in the midstream sector.
“We must clarify history and ensure accountability. This is not about party politics but national interest and public trust.”
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