Officials deliberately sabotaging operations of refineries for personal gain — David-West

Onetime Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Prof. David-West has accused officials responsible for the operations of refineries in the country of deliberately sabotaging them so as to encourage importation of fuel for their personal gain.

David-West further stated that the subsidising of petroleum products by successive governments over the years was a fraud.

Speaking with The Punch, David-West noted that sharp practices by officials manning the oil sector were responsible for Nigeria’s inability to refine its crude oil locally.

David-West, a former Minister under President Muhammadu Buhari when he was military Head of State between 1984 and 1985, said back then, the country was not importing refined petroleum products.

He said, “We had only three refineries and we were exporting fuel; we did not import one litre of fuel 

“Why did the refineries not work? I wrote an article around 1991 titled ‘Sabotage Theory of Refineries.’ 

The refineries are deliberately sabotaged to import oil. The refineries can work.

“Our interest is to make the refineries work. If the refineries are working and they are supplied what they required to refine, there is no reason to import fuel at all.”

The Professor of Virology stated that sources in the sector told him that officials preferred to sell off the crude meant to be refined locally so as to make profit from it as refining the product locally will amount to them losing.

He noted that Buhari while serving as the Head of State had said there was nothing like subsidy.

“There is no subsidy to remove. Buhari had said there was no subsidy, years before he became president. 

We are conserving fraud; there is no subsidy.

“You cannot remove what does not exist. To say that they are going to remove subsidy is a contradiction in terms. 

You don’t remove what doesn’t exist,” David-West said.

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