TUC Demands Immediate Re-opening of Port Harcourt Refinery to End Fuel Scarcity
Amid the resurgence of long queues at petrol stations in the Federal Capital, Abuja and neighbouring states, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged the federal government to keep to its pledge and reopen the old Port Harcourt Refinery immediately.
The union which lamented the persisting hardship Nigerians are facing due to harsh economic policies of government, said the federal government should restore the payment of wage award to workers pending the conclusion of negotiation on new minimum wage.
It noted that some states, including Delta, Anambra , Benue have failed to pay wage award to the workers or provide any form of palliative for its people.
In the same vein, the union listed states that have excelled in the provision of palliative for its people to include, Lagos, Oyo, Bayelsa, Yobe, Kaduna, Rivers, Edo and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday , shortly after the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union, TUC President, Festus Osifo, said the federal government appears to be reneging on its assurance that the old Port Harcourt Refinery will commence operations by first week of April.
He said that the failure of government to rehabilitate local refineries was responsible for the persisting fuel scarcity tormenting the country .
Osifo said: '’Sometime in the first quarter, the 12th annual congress of
Nigeria led a delegation to the Port Harcourt Refinery. Although the inspection, both the contractors and those that are employees of company, they told us clearly that the refinery is going to come into fruition on the 1st week of April .
"Today, we are approaching the first week of April this year. Now, we are approaching the end of April and the refinery production has not resumed in the old Port Harcourt Refinery.
"We wish to, hereby, call on federal government to do everything within its arsenal to ensure that the old Port Harcourt Refinery starts production immediately.
"You could go outside today and you could see cubes everywhere in FCT and in some other neighbouring states. But we certainly believe that if our refineries were working optimally, today we would continue to have enough supply".
Osifo however commended the recent signing by the President of a new Presidential Order regarding some incentives encourage oil and gas production.
The TUC president further said that the NEC meeting reviewed the progress of negotiation of the new minimum wage with government. He said that TUC was not happy with the slow pace of progress on the matter.
When asked about the common stand of NLC and TUC regarding the amount being demanded as new minimum wage, Osifo said that both labour centres were jointly pushing for the new minimum wage to be pegged at N615,000.