NUPENG Blames Nigerian Leaders Over Massive Corruption In The Oil and Gas Industry

                                      

The crisis rocking the Oil and Gas Industry in the country has been blamed on the age long corruption among Nigeria’s political leaders and their insensitivity to the plight of the masses.

The accusation was made yesterday by the Port Harcourt Zonal Chairman of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers  (NUPENG), Comrade Godwin Eruba at the maiden inauguration of Anambra State branch of the body, SUTAKEP unit.

Comrade Eruba who slammed the past and present Nigeria’s Presidents for their gross appetite for corruption linked the tradition of Petroleum Products importation into the country to corrupt tendencies and queried why successive Nigerian leaders have failed to build new refineries with the geometric growth of consumers of petroleum products.

He remarked that insincerity and lack of proper vision had blinded various administrations in the country to realize the genuine meaning of true leadership and warned that NUPENG in collaboration with other labour unions would strongly resist any future attempt to enslave Nigerians by any political gimmick to increase the pump price of petroleum products.

Comrade Eruba who described the “partial and complete removal of fuel subsidy” as a political gimmick, adding that whatever nomenclature attached to it that corruption was killing the petroleum industry in Nigeria.

“We will not allow removal of fuel subsidy whether partial or complete. We will not support any further increase in the price of fuel. The Federal Government should first of all build new refineries and stop importation of petroleum products which have been marred by massive corruption going on in the country on daily basis”. 

He warned that unless the nation’s political leaders rise up to their responsibilities and shun corruption the nation’s economic growth would never reflect on the standard of living of the people, stressing that the inability of the National Assembly to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) could also be linked to corruption.

 By Afam Aminu Chimezie, Onitsha