Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action
Congress (AAC), says he will not remove the costly petrol subsidy if elected
president.
Sowore spoke on Arise TV’s Global Business Report on Tuesday.
Subsidy has been a source of concern for oil and gas
stakeholders who argue that it is negatively impacting profitability in the
sector and the country’s overall revenue.
This year, the federal government has projected to spend N4
trillion on subsidy, despite calls for its removal.
Speaking on the business programme, Sowore, said he would
trim petrol importation to reduce the impact of petrol subsidy.
“I am not removing it (petrol subsidy) but I am going to
make sure refineries work so that we can refine locally,” he said.
“That is very important because without addressing the issue
of production of fuel, typically gasoline which is what is most important about
all these, we are not going to be able to address the issue of fuel subsidy.
“There is no subsidy.
We are just subsidising the things we import.”
The AAC flagbearer argued that the only benefit Nigerians
are getting from the government is subsidised petrol.
“And when you refine crude, there’s gasoline. And when you
refine crude, you don’t only get gasoline. So people forget that we are no
longer subsidising diesel for example,” the presidential hopeful said.
“Why is it that the money we save from not subsidising
diesel is not impacting on our lives or that of aviation fuel? People keep
lying to you because they always have a pressure point to blackmail the public
with.
“I have said there is
no subsidy going on. We found out in 2012 after Occupy Nigeria that they were
importing so-called fuel with barges that had sunk twenty years ago.
“People were arrested. They were being prosecuted. At the
end of the day, till today, I don’t think any prosecution worked. Those who got
sentenced or indicted at the federal high court got the appeal court to let
them go. So that’s the problem.”
On oil theft, Sowore accused security agencies of
involvement in the act.
“I investigated and found out how oil theft was happening on
SaharaReporters as far back as 2012,” he said.
“Some of those
reports were some of the reasons people were arrested in the subsidy section of
things. The people who are stealing crude oil are people who are in the Army,
Navy and they have connections all the way to Aso Rock. There are people who
are hidden who are abetting oil theft.”
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