Bayelsa: Reps probe abandonment of $35m modular refinery

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The House of Representatives, yesterday, resolved to probe the abandonment  of a $35 million modular refinery in Brass, Bayelsa State.

Consequently, the House resolved to set up an Ad-hoc Committee to undertake the probe and report back to it within four weeks for further legislative actions.

This followed the adoption of a motion by an All Progressives Congress (APC) member from Edo State, Billy Osawaru, calling on the House to investigate the circumstances surrounding the modular refinery project.

Osawaru, in his lead debate, noted that sometime in 2020, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) invested $35 million in Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, a modular refinery to be located in Brass, Bayelsa State.

However, he expressed concern that despite the huge investment, the modular was not established, noting that there is “nothing on ground to show that huge financial commitments had been made.”

The lawmaker recalled that in May 2024, a stakeholder submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)  seeking an investigation of the modular refinery project by NCDMB, among others. He stated that nothing has been heard of the project.

According to him, “The continued inactivity of this Brass modular refinery project raises significant questions about the management of public funds and the effectiveness of oversight mechanisms in Nigeria.”

The lawmaker, while calling on the House to investigate the project, noted that, “the key objective of the present administration is to ensure energy security through improved oil production output in order to increase the nation’s revenue base and that every available opportunity has been geared towards this objective.”