South-South Forum Commends Buhari, Sylva over Plan to Fix Port Harcourt Refinery

By Adedayo Akinwale

The South-south Emerging Leaders Forum (SELF) has commended President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, for the approval of $1.5 billion by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery.

Its National Coordinator, Mr. Benjamin Kolowei, in a statement issued Thursday said, the move to fix the refinery would positively impact the economic activities in the South-south region.

It stated: “Our forum received the news to fix Port Harcourt refinery with great joy. The move shows the commitment of the current administration to tackle the challenges facing our oil sector head on.

“We believe that if the refinery start operating at its capacity, it will improve a lot of economic activities in the South-south region especially and the country at large will benefit from the project. Specifically, there will be employment not only for the people of the region but Nigerians generally.”

The group noted that it was happy that the administration had taken a bold step not only to fix the refinery, but the operations and maintenance, which are the major issues are considered in the approval.