… says ‘we must continue to support local production’
Former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, has thrown his weight behind Dangote Refinery over the looming controversy surrounding the refinery over its claims of sabotage, and the claim by the regulators that the refinery is producing substandard products and operating at low capacity.
The regulators’ claims met with resistance by the Chairman/ CEO of the Dangote Group, Alh Aliko Dangote, who alleged at a world press conference that there was a deliberate attempt to undermine the refinery so that Nigeria would continue to patronize a blending plant in Malta said to belong to Oando, allegedly owned and headed by the Tinubu family as shareholders, so as continue to saturate the local market with imported oil and break Dangote’s planned market monopoly of petroleum products.
Prince Secondus in a statement made available to newsmen by his Media Adviser, Ike Abonyi in Abuja, said he is not against healthy competition, but believes that local plants must be accorded priority if the country must move away from importation and be self-sufficient in local production.
According to the statement, Secondus believed that the refining market is wide enough to accommodate new investors and competition.
He noted that Dangote, for now, has been patriotic enough to invest over $19billion to build a world-class refinery that will cater to Nigeria’s domestic needs.
He therefore applauded the decision by the Federal Government to provide crude to the refinery at local rates, saying it’s a welcome development and speaks volumes of an end in sight to the perennial petroleum products scarcity in the country.
Secondus therefore urged the Federal Government to fish out the culprits and take decisive action against those identified as “saboteurs of one of our national prides.”
The former PDP chairman admonished Dangote not to be discouraged by the antics of the petroleum products regulators who are hellbent on undermining local production to further their pecuniary interests.
Secondus rather urged Dangote “to rededicate himself to national service and development.”
