Niger Delta activist and environmental consultant, Ahamefule Agbawo has commended the Group Chief Executive Officer, (CGEO) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPCL) Mele Kyari over the rehabilitated and expanded Port Harcourt refinery which came on stream recently after the National monument was shut down in 2019 by the previous administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Agbawo’s commendation is contained in a statement he issued in Abuja.
He said a lot of courage and resilience by Kyari to expand the 65,000 barrel/day facility to 150,000 per day and his ability to set it on motion to ensure that petroleum products are available to Nigeria and international markets is something to cheer about.
Agbawo said where some had sunk the nation’s wealth into the turnaround maintenance of the facility without success, Kyari has successfully revamped the refinery saying, Kyari’s NNPCL has proven to be a worthy and reliable organisation that has disappoint naysayers with its achievements.
He said that same feat was achieved in the protection of oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta region which he said was hitherto bedevilled by oil theft and pipelines vandalism.
He said Kyari engaged a private security firm, Tantita Security Services, owned and managed by High Chief Government Ekpemukpolo a.k.a Tomopolo, tightening the noose around oil thieves, thereby shooting the country’s production quota in the International oil market up and also adding to the national revenue.
Kyari’s achievements, Agbawo added has proven bookmakers wrong particularly the fifth columnists who he described as enemies of the state who tend to play politics with anything in sight.
“While the NNPCL was still working hard to ensure the refinery works, some politicians mocked the operators of the political system due to ignorance or deliberate act of mischief or both. Now that the refinery is truckloading, the NNPCL management under Kyari has demonstrated sufficient capacity to revamp other refineries and set them on motion like it did in the case of the Port Harcourt refinery,” he said.
One of the major advantages of an operational Port Harcourt refinery, Agbawo noted is that, it will remove idle and employable youths from the streets of the Niger Delta region, and also reduce crime rate in the country.
Agbawo further stated that an operational Port Harcourt refinery will, in its value chain, exit the Delta region from poverty and despondency, as he called on the NNPCL to take the advantage inherent in the revamped facility to massively and gainfully engage the youths to add value to their economic well-being.
The Nkwere, Imo State-born activist called on the management to bring Warri Petrochemical Company and Kaduna refinery on stream too to create a glut in the petroleum products’ market in the country as he also hail Kyari-led management on the ongoing exportation of petroleum products, saying only a renewed hope administration as being pivoted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who he described as the greatest leader in the annals of independent Nigeria can achieve such feat in less that two years of his administration.