₦airaland Forum

Strong indications emerged Tuesday, that the
Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company
(WRPC) would within a fortnight begin
production at 50 per cent installed capacity.
Daily Independent investigation revealed that
the first consignment of crude oil for
production at the company’s bay arrived on
Monday, a development said to have sent
members of staff of the company into wide
jubilation after seeing barrels of crude oil
being discharged for the first time in more
than two years.
A barrel of crude would produce 73.8 liters of
petrol when refined. This means that the Warri
Refinery, with an installed capacity of 125,000
barrels per day would now be producing 62,500
barrels per day (at 50 per cent capacity),
translating to 4,612,500 litres of Premium
Motor Spirit (petrol) per day.
Group Managing Director of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),
Joseph Dawha had last week announced that
the Port-Harcourt Refinery would next month
commence production of petroleum products.
A source close to the WRPC who spoke on
condition of anonymity, confirmed that some
barrels of crude have been received in
preparation for full production.
The source who added that the establishment
received crude oil consignment last in 2012,
noted that crude oil supply to the refinery was
stalled by the immediate past government.
This, the source added, resulted in massive
importation of refined products by the Federal
Government in preparation for their full
privatisation.
He further disclosed that all the machines for
the take off of production were also last Sunday
switched on in readiness for production works
in the company.
According to the source: “Yes, it is true that the
Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company
limited is set to commence the refining of
petroleum products. The production will start
within the next 14 days from now. All the
production machines were since last Sunday
switched on in readiness for the production.
“I also want to inform you that the
management has received crude oil for that
purpose this week Monday. For over two years
now we have not received crude oil as it was
being sent to foreign refineries from where
they were been imported back to the country
as refined products.
“This started soon after the alleged planned
privatization of the refineries by the
immediate past administration which was also
said to have targeted the sales to its selected
cronies thereby placing the workers of the
refining and petrochemical company on
permanent state of redundancy for the past
two years,” he added.
The source also alleged that minor turnaround
maintenance was being carried out by those
who had been allocated the refinery but was
immediately put on hold soon after the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the
presidential election.
It was however gathered that technical staff of
the company who have been idle are already
on hand, anxiously warming up to resume
production as the management is determined
and working hard to ensure that the anticipated
two-week target is met.
NNPC has four refineries, two in Port Harcourt,
and one each in Kaduna and Warri. The
refineries have a combined installed capacity of
445,000 barrels per day. A comprehensive
network of pipelines and depots strategically
located throughout Nigeria link these
refineries.
Meanwhile, 11 ships laden with petroleum
products and other items have arrived Lagos
Ports and waiting to berth.
This, according to the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN), was contained in a daily publication of
the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)- Shipping
Position, made available in Lagos on Tuesday.
According to the document, three of the ships
are waiting to discharge petrol, while two are
loaded with fresh fish, base oil, aviation fuel,
bulk sugar and crude palm oil.
The report also indicated that 36 other ships
were being expected at the ports from June 16
to June 30, noting that the ships were laden
with petrol, diesel, kerosene, fresh fish,
general cargo, buckwheat, containers and steel
products, adding that the other items on board
were bulk clinker, ethanol, bulk sugar, buthane
gas and base oil.
The publication also explained that 22 other
ships laden with diesel, base oil, fertiliser,
buckwheat, bulk rice, gypsum, truck, buthane
container, fresh fish and bulk sugar are
presently discharging at the ports.

The newly elected deputy speaker of the House
of Representatives, Yusuf Lasun, has defended
the annual budget of N150 billion for the
National Assembly since 2010.
The amount was reduced to N120 billion in the
2015 budget, in the face of dwindling federal
revenue.
Mr. Lasun said the N150 billion which many
Nigerians have criticised is not much compared
to the entire budget of Nigeria.
He said the National Assembly amount is less
than three percent of the total budget of the
federal government.
According to him, the legislature is a separate
arm of government with its own peculiarities.
Meanwhile Mr. Lasun has said he does not have
any plan to resign his position having been
elected by the members of the House.
He stated this during a chat with journalists in
Abuja shortly after he inaugurated a 37-
member Ad-hoc Committee on Welfare set by
the House.
Mr. Lasun, who represents Irepodun/Olorunda/
Osogbo/Orolu federal constituency of Osun
State on the platform of the All Progressives
Congress, was elected on June 9. He defeated
Mohammed Monguno from Borno State by 203
votes to 153.
However, following the controversy
surrounding the election of the National
Assembly leadership, there were speculations
that the deputy speaker was under pressure to
quit his position to pave way for Femi
Gbajabiamila to occupy the position.
Mr. Gbajabiamila had lost the election for the
position of the Speaker to Yakubu Dogara.
Some legislators from the South West zone had
allegedly met him to ask him to yield his place
to Mr. Gbajabiamila, former minority leader of
the House, who is also from the same zone.
But Mr. Lasun said the story about his plan to
resign was merely speculative.
“That is a speculation; why will I resign?” he
asked. “I went through an election on the
mandate of the Speaker (Yakubu Dogara).”

phabulux:
Apparently, you can't comprehend. Did anybody say politicians were poor before entering politics? Even in your rank st-upidity, I'm sure, you must realise that there's a difference between not being poor and the kind of stupendous wealth attached to the names of our politicians since their success on the political field.

stuff46:
Apc and crisis
Smh for them

phabulux:
Christ!


Are you dumb or what? Please, answer this question honestly: do you have any problem with comprehension?


David Mark was a military governor and, by extension, a notable entrepreneur before his incursion into politics. Forget ye not: he was a top officer in the military and he earned billions.

Atiku was so rich before he dabbled into politics that there were visible testaments to his business acumen. Even The Times and The Economist paid their respect to his commercial sagacity.

Please, if you can't give us verifiable evidence of the source of their wealth before going into politics, then, do us a favour and shut the eff up!

ExInferis:
classic chicken and egg.
how did they become billionaires? our economy is moribund, so through what economic activity did they make their wealth? how come we never hear of them and their businesses before politics? i mean, eveyone knows of Adenuga, Dangote, Tony Elumelu, Jim Ovia et al. who was dino melaye, rabiu kwankwaso, atiku, orji, akpabio, saraki (he consumed a bank), david mark, before politics?

you cant be a billionaire and own planes and houses without a visible business.

in developed countries where business people are rich, own wealth, and contribute to the World Economic Forum (at one point Apple had more cash than the US government), politicians quit POLITICS to enter BUSINESS and not the other way round.

get your facts right: all our politicians are in politics to do business.

The raging crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, took a different dimension with the call by one of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) members, Mr. Timi Frank that the party’s national chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun should resign.

Mr. Frank who blamed the chairman and some members of the APC’s NWC for the crisis that has resulted from the election of leaders of National Assembly, said it was unfortunate that the leadership of the party played hide and seek and over indulged themselves in the choice of Senate President and House Speaker.

Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara had emerged Senate President and House Speaker, respectively, against the wishes and position of the APC. Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila had been favored by the party after the initial conduct of a mock election which was won by the duo, to occupy the seats.

Speaking in Abuja yesterday, however, ‎Mr. Frank who deputises for Alhaji Lai Muhammed in the party stated that the chairman and leadership of the party ought to resign having embarked on an embarrassing mock election that never had the blessings of the entire party’s leadership, more so that the leadership exhibited gross incompetence to manage the National Assembly issue until it blew out of hand. This he said was because of the vested interest manifested by the chairman and few of his colleagues in the party.

“If my party could not keep to the promise of change, then we must correct them to keep to that. I have no fear or favour than to say that the current leadership of the party has practically failed. With this incident alone, the chairman should resign from his position after taking a position against the people and the people’s position has finally come to stay. In the Western world, by today the party’s national chairman would have resigned honourably.

“Not just the national chairman but the entire leadership that took this decision of conducting mock election against the outcry of the larger members of the party. Against the bigger picture of Nigerians. A hand-full of‎ the party leadership came to take a decision, and by today the people have shown that the voice of the people is the voice of God,” Timi Frank stated.

He specifically blamed APC chairman, Odigie Oyegun for clearly failing to consult widely before embarking on the mock election which he said ridiculed the party. He submitted that the chairman’s action suggested that he acted under undue pressure to conduct the mock elections as admitted by him and was therefore of the opinion that if the ‎APC was to rid itself of the mistakes of the PDP, it needed a chairman that would insulate himself from undue pressures no matter where such pressure emanated from.

“You ‎could see the way the party including the national chairman was speaking‎ before the NASS leadership elections; it showed clearly that the chairman had totally taken sides which wasn’t meant to be. I understand, he took some of those decisions based on pressure. In this century, APC as a party, does not need a chairman that will be under pressure.

“‎And the party’s national chairman caused it because times out of numbers some of leaders told him to come up with a zoning formula from the beginning. He was as‎ked to take a decision and let people follow that but he didn’t do that. They were playing hide and seek with the issue until the last minute when they saw the danger, and they wanted to play hanky-panky, which led us to lose one position at the Senate,” Comrade Frank said.

On remarks attributed to the APC’s national publicity secretary that Buhari is a product of the party and not the party’s leader, Timi Frank who frowned at the statement, called on Lai Mohammed to desist from such comments as it was capable of putting the party in bad light.

” Let’s go back and ask Lai Mohammed who the leader of the party is. If he does not recognise the President as the leader. In my own view, If Lai Mohammed that is my direct boss could come up to tell Nigerians that the President is only a product of the party and not the national leader of the party, then he should have been able to tell us who the leader of the party is.

“We have seen that even in then PDP, former President Goodluck Jonathan was the leader of the party. If in our own case the President cannot be the leader of the party, he should tell us who the leader is then,” Frank averred.

He described what transpired at the national Assembly as good for democracy, noting that Nigeria stood to be the overall beneficiary.

“Those that are calling for the deputy senate president to resign are anti-people, and I will campaign against it. I will continue to support Burkola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu and every progressive Nigerian should support this mission as it will take Nigeria to the next phase because failure to do this will disrupt democracy, ” the deputy national publicity secretary stated.

MyFlair:
not just about his wealth, his position as a senator of the federal republic does nt warrant him to engage in such act of displaying his wealth

sonnie10:
So you are the best of the pack in your family? Interesting!