An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Bayelsa State, Izzi Yakiah, has faulted the claim by minister of state for Petroleum Resources Oil, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, that 35 million US dollars was completely paid for a 2000 BPD Atlantic Modular Refinery in Brass Twon which is yet to be operational.Yakiah also added that Lokpobiri’s insinuation that the fund was diverted by his predecessor Timipre Sylva was malicious.
The APC chieftain was reacting to Lokpobiri’s comments last Wednesday, at stakeholders meeting in Twon Brass community town hall, in Bayelsa, where he raised questions about the state of the refinery project and the funding.
Yakiah, who debunked the minister’s notion that Sylva shortchanged the people of Brass over the project, said “Most of the projects alleged by Heineken to have been paid for during the tenure of Sylva as Minister were projects conceived and solely relied on counterpart funding to be fully completed.”
The APC chieftain added that Lokpobiri’s hasty visits to the access road to Brass Petroleum Product Terminal Tank Farm project before addressing the people of Brass was aim at inciting the people of against Sylva, who hails from Brass Twon.
He recounted that Sylva completed a 17 storey building headquarters of the Nigerian Content Development in Yenagoa, worked for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act in 2021 and executed other corporate social responsibility projects in Brass Island.
He charged Lokpobiri, a former Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, to adopt dialogue to resolve the issues surrounding the abandoned oil and gas projects in Brass Island.
Yakiah appealed to the minister to initiate steps that will ensure speedy completion of the projects attracted by the former governor in line with President Bola Tinubu Renewed Hope Agenda.
He charged the minister to influence more federal government projects to Bayelsa State and not repeat his poor record of achievements as minister of state for Agriculture between 2015 – 2018 under former President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
He said instead of attacking Sylva, the minister ought to have used the stakeholders meeting to explain the controversies surrounding the operations of the Port Harcourt Refinery and two other major refineries, adding that Nigerians would want to know what current steps are being taken to reduce the fuel price.
He noted that while other ministers are initiating robust reforms and lobbying the president for key federal appointments for their people to strengthen APC in different states, Lokpobiri “has chosen to ignore such progressive ventures and focus on Timipre Sylva who did his best to improve oil and gas sector in Nigeria.”
The APC chieftain however thanked President Tinubu for recently signing the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) for the $3.5 billion Brass fertiliser and petrochemical project in Bayelsa State at the instance of Shell Petroleum Development Company and its partners.
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