Business
IYC Blames FG For Illegal Refineries In N’Delta
The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), has blamed the Federal Government for the continuation of illegal refineries and bunkering activities in the Niger Delta region.
According to IYC, illegal refineries thrive because of the government’s failure to fulfill its promise to set up modular refineries in the region.
Chairman of IYC, Eastern Zone, Comrade Ibim Ibiwari, who disclosed this to newsmen at the weekend in Port Harcourt, said illegal refineries, otherwise known as ‘kpo-fire’, would have ended if the Federal Government had set up modular refineries in the region as promised.
He also blamed youth restiveness and other illegal activities in the region on massive unemployment.
According to him, “The Federal Government did not live up to its expectations in establishing modular refineries it promised the Niger Delta.
“If such promise was fulfilled, it would have gone a long way to settle the problems of illegal refineries and restiveness in this region, because youths would have been gainfully and legally employed,” he said.
The IYC also blamed the multinational oil companies operating in the region for not doing enough as expected of them in the development of their host communities.
Ibiwari, however, called on the Niger Delta youths, particularly the Ijaw youths, to be peaceful and not to take laws into their hands, pointing out that time has come when every disagreement should be settled through dialogue.
Counting on the gains of agitations in the region, Ibiwari said that the establishment of the Niger Delta Development Commission and the Local Content office in Bayelsa State among others, are visible gains that several years of agitations have brought to the region.
According to him, some heroes of the region like Isaac Boro who took up arms against the Federal Government for the injustice meted on the region need to be celebrated.
It would be recalled that Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo, when he was the acting president, had promised that the Federal Government would build modular refineries and also give licence for the establishment of modular refineries in the region.
By: Corlins Walter