The Coalition for Oil Sector Reforms and Accountability has urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to disclose details of funds previously spent on refinery rehabilitation projects before entering into fresh agreements with foreign partners.
The group made the demand on Friday during a press conference in Abuja, where its National President, Tekeme Umukoro, called for greater transparency and accountability in the management of Nigeria’s refinery sector.
The call follows the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between NNPCL and two Chinese firms — Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng Industrial Park Operation and Management Company Limited — for the rehabilitation and operation of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Friday, Umukoro said concerns persisted over the outcome of earlier rehabilitation projects despite the huge public funds committed to them over the years.
“Nigeria can no longer continue to tolerate a dangerous cycle of waste, opacity, and endless promises in the management of the nation’s refineries,” he said.
He noted that successive administrations had spent billions of dollars on refinery rehabilitation while the country continued to rely heavily on imported refined petroleum products.
According to him, the Port Harcourt refinery rehabilitation project alone reportedly gulped more than $1.5bn, with additional billions committed to the Warri and Kaduna refineries.
The coalition said Nigerians deserved full disclosure on previous rehabilitation contracts, including the identities of contractors involved, project milestones achieved and the status of audit reports linked to the projects.
“We find it unacceptable that public institutions continue to announce new agreements without first accounting for previous investments. Nigerians deserve to know what happened to the billions already spent on refinery rehabilitation,” Umukoro said.
The group also expressed reservations over comments attributed to the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Bayo Ojulari, suggesting that the company was moving away from contractor-driven rehabilitation towards a technical equity partnership model.
It said the public should be adequately informed about the structure of the proposed arrangement and its implications for Nigeria’s refining industry in the long term.
The coalition further demanded the release of audit reports on refinery rehabilitation expenditures from 2015 to date and urged the National Assembly to convene a public hearing on refinery spending over the past decade.
It also appealed to President Bola Tinubu to direct the appropriate agencies to review all previous refinery rehabilitation contracts.
Umukoro maintained that Nigeria’s oil sector required functional refineries, transparent institutions and stronger accountability mechanisms to restore public confidence.