An elder statesman in Rivers State, Elder Amabipi Martins has called for a legal frame work to legalise the operations of illegal refineries popularly known as “Kpo Fire” in the Niger Delta.
Elder Martins who spoke, under the aegis of Kpofire Advocacy, with newsmen in Port Harcourt said that a policy framework for illegal refineries will economically empower the Niger Delta people.
He said that the situation will increase the capacity of youths in the region  and check the problems of militancy and environmental degradations.            He described the operations of illegal refineries as a desperate effort by the youths to make a living out of the natural resources within their natural environment.
“Over the years these youths along with their parents have lived in abject poverty in the  midst of these resources which have been plundered by the combined effort of the conspiracy of the Nigerian nation and the multinationals, otherwise known as the IOCs.
Kpofire is a phenomenon  and  a revolution that is spewing out from the air of suppressed stagnation and frustration, denial and deprivation unjustly imposed on the owners of oil,” he said.
Elder Martins who was “former General  Manager of the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation said that the continuous killing of youths involved in illegal oil bunkering will not solve the problem.
He also criticised the security agencies for helping to cause environmental pollution of the region through the destruction of barges and other vessels used in oil bunkering, stressing that the best thing to do is not to destroy it but to recycle the oil for sale.
“The sound demand is that, these boys need a kind of rehabilitation, they should not be seen as criminals,” adding that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should consider allocating oil blocks to the youths.