Tinubu Promised Port Harcourt Refinery Will Become Operational By Year’s End – TUC

The President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assured that the Port Harcourt refinery will become operational at the end of this year.

This was made known by Osifo on Wednesday night while making an appearance on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, after an earlier meeting with President Tinubu at the presidential villa, Abuja.

Osifo and his Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) counterpart, Joe Ajaero, met with Tinubu amid nationwide protests after consecutive fuel price hikes arising from President Bola Tinubu’s insistence on removal of subsidy on the product and allowing market forces determine the price.

The TUC President held that the nationwide protest was “largely successful “and had the impact to spur the President to fix the major refineries across the nation.

The President will be held accountable

• Osifo said, “When we asked him, even before now, part of the things they have also said was issued around the supply chain.
• “We told him categorically, ‘Tell us when would the refinery start functioning? What we had from them was that by the end of this year, the refinery – the whole Port Harcourt refinery would come on stream most definitely by the end of the year.’’

Osifo, who also doubles as the PENGASSAN president, stated that organised labour would make sure President Tinubu’s assurances would not just be empty talk but that a structure would be put in place to hold the number one citizen accountable.

• He said, “Today, they told us that by the end of this year, the whole Port Harcourt refinery will come on stream. With the extra information that we have, we believe it is possible, but we need to keep checking on them to ensure that we actually achieve that feat.”

Situation with Warri, Kaduna refineries

On the state of other refineries, Osifo believes the duo of Warri and Kaduna are an easy fix but that of the latter is hampered by the security situation in the country

• He said, “The Port Harcourt refinery is a total rehabilitation but the Kaduna and the Warri refinery is a quick fix.
• “Both refineries, they awarded to do, but at a particular point, they will mobilise to Warri, but Kaduna they refuse to mobilise because of security issues. So, Warri is actually ahead of Kaduna, but as of today, they have not given us a clear timeline on that.’’