ABEOKUTA – A chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun state, Otunba Segun Showunmi has decried the inability of Ogun state government to house the newly commissioned Dangote refinery in Lagos state.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on Monday commissioned the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote refinery located at the Lekki free zone near Lagos.
The pipeline infrastructure at the refinery is said to be the largest in the world with 1,100 kilometres and will handle 3 billion standard cubic foot of gas per day.
The inauguration of the refinery comes with high expectations in the Nigerian energy sector amid plans by the Nigerian government to remove petrol subsidy in the second half of the year. Subsidy payments steadily rose from N351bn in 2005 to N4.39 trillion in 2022, while N3. 6trn was earmarked to fund fuel subsidy for the first six months in 2023.
The government pins its hopes of ending fuel imports largely on the completion of the Dangote refinery.
But the PDP chieftain in a congratulatory message to Lagos state government, flayed Ogun state government for not providing the needed impetus to house the refinery in the state.
Recall that, in 2018 Alhaji Aliko Dangote visited the former governor of the state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun on the need to host the refinery plant in Ogun state.
An unconfirmed report says Governor Amosun’s high tax and alleged kickback from the project chased Dangote away from the state.
The embittered PDP leader, however, maintained that a law must be enacted to review and punish any governor responsible for economic sabotage.
He said, “I cannot but wonder what explanation Ogun State has for not housing that project that sits pretty within our Ogun Development Master Plan with Olokola Free Trade Zone in Ogun Waterside!
“It is time to have a law that punishes economic sabotage occasioned by bad politics!
“No one should be allowed to set back a state on the altar of winning an election, which more than likely has queried integrity.
“No state can make a steady process if that nonsense is not punished to prevent a repeat.
“The cost of maintaining Governors is way too huge a price to pay, only for the state to now carry huge consequences of their myopic tantrums.
“A law must be enacted to review and punish this type of economic and development sabotage. Never again.
“Thank God Dangote did not take the project outside the country, which would have provoked me beyond words.
“No one must be allowed to be irresponsible at the expense of all of us.”
