instead of destroying their refineries.
Speaking,
Tuesday, during a visit to Rivers State, acting President Yemi Osinbajo, said
that Nigeria needs to provide work for people who make a living from illegal
refining of oil in the Niger Delta in order to achieve peace.
“Our approach
to that is that we must engage them (illegal refiners) by establishing modular
refineries so that they can participate in legal refineries. We have recognised
that young men must be properly engaged,” he said, without giving details. He
also said that the government will make more provisions for the amnesty scheme
for former militants who laid down arms in 2009 in exchange for cash stipends
and job training. Illegal refining is one of the few businesses flourishing in
an otherwise desolate region, as petrol is scarce in Nigeria due to the
country’s derelict state refineries. Authorities had originally cut the budget
for cash payments to militants to end corruption but later resumed payments to
stop surging pipeline attacks crippling vital oil revenues. “We have made more
provisions for amnesty and provisions for social intervention,” Osinbajo told
residents of Port Harcourt. He has been visiting the Niger Delta since last
month to calm tensions. The government was said to have been holding talks with
militants to end attacks on oil pipelines which cut the country’s output by
700,000 barrels a day for several months last year.
vanguardngr
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