Crime

Illegal Refinery: N4 Trillion Subsidy Is Fraud, Says Senatorial Aspirant

Published

3 years ago

Apr 30, 2022.

Abdulsalam Abdullah Opeyemi

Senatorial aspirant of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for Imo East Senatorial district, Mr Chyna Anthony, has taken a swipe at the federal government over the loss of lives in the recent explosion at the site of an illegal refinery in Abaezi community, Ohaji Egbema, Imo State.
…Anthony says federal government has failed to protect the masses both economic and security-wise

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EKO HOT BLOG reports that Mr Chyna Anthony, a senatorial contender of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for Imo East Senatorial district, has lashed out at the federal government over the deaths caused by an explosion at an illicit refinery in Abaezi, Ohaji Egbema, Imo State.

While speaking to journalists in Imo on Saturday, the party’s leader accused the federal government for the tendency of poor Nigerians participating in illicit activities to live, such as operating illegal refineries across the Niger Delta and other oil-producing states.

Anthony claimed that the federal government’s annual expenditure of 4 trillion Naira on fuel subsidies is false and a catalyst for mass poverty.

He expressed his disgust with the incident, bemoaning the economy’s bad handling over the last seven years, stating that it has left Nigeria heavily burdened by poverty, hunger, and criminality.

“I feel compelled to call on the federal government to develop a real system, one that would look after the people’s economic and social needs.”

“If our refineries stop running, they can be resurrected or sold for management.” In a circumstance where the National Assembly has approved a gasoline subsidy of 4 trillion naira, it is demoralizing and the worst economic crime ever committed.

He added that, if the Nigerian government provides jobs for the people, there won’t have been any need to engage in illegal refinery and that the security operatives such as the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) should have detected such illegal activities first beforehand.

Anthony advised the Federal Government to be intentional rather than reactionary and to build modular refineries so that the people of Imo State can be employed.

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“We cannot have a system where poverty is killing people, we have bandits, people are hungry, look at the streets, people are begging for money including 3, 9 year olds but if we take care of them we have solved most of the problem,” he said.

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