21st March, 2021
Nigerian entrepreneur Atedo Peterside has slammed the plan by the Federal Government to spend $1.5billion to repair the Port Harcourt refinery.
In a Twitter post on Sunday, Peterside asked the government to sell the refinery as it is.
He dubbed the rehabilitation plan a brazen and an expensive adventure.
He then urged the Buhari government to subject the plan to an “informed national debate”.
“FG should halt $1.5bn approval for repair of Port Harcourt refinery and subject this brazen & expensive adventure to an informed national debate”, Peterside tweeted.
“Many experts prefer that this refinery is sold ‘as is’ by BPE to core-investors with proven capacity to repair it with their own funds,” he added.
Many Nigerians have condemned the move to spend the huge fund on the 32 year-old refinery.
Some have asked the government to use the money more judiciously by building a new refinery.
The Port Harcourt refinery has been epileptic, despite several expensive repairs.
In a report last year, the NNPC said the three refineries in Nigeria gobbled N10.23 billion in salary expenses.