GOVERNOR WIKE HAS EXPRESSED WORRY OVER NON-FUNCTION OF ALL REFINERIES IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION DESPITE ITS IMPORTANCE TO NIGERIA’S ECONOMY.

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike says there was  nothing to Jubilate about the approval of one point five billion Dollars for the rehabilitation of Port-Harcourt Refinery .

He explained that similar promises had been made in the past particularly during election transition period that never materialized.

The  Governor who stated this during an interview on Channels  Television, pointed out that people ought to bear in mind that there was difference between mere approval and actual release  of the funds

He described as unacceptable, a situation where all the refineries in the Niger Delta Region, which is the hub of the oil and gas industry, were not functioning.

While noting that before the APC- led government assumed office in 2015, it promised to fix the refineries, Governor Wike wondered how the government which now has barely two years to the end of its tenure can fix the refineries it neglected since 2015.

The Governor stressed that ahead of 2023 politics, so many promises and approvals would be made by the APC led government to hoodwink gullible Nigerians that the country was being taken to Eldorado.

On the issue of utilization of the 13 percent derivation fund, the Governor said no former South-South Governor, particularly those that served between 2007 and 2015 can equal the achievements recorded by the State Government under his watch.

Governor Wike stressed that Governors had been given a responsibility to govern their respective states and should be allowed to do so, arguing that a lot of politicians in the ruling party that are questioning the utilization of state resources were just trying to conceal their own deficiencies.

He maintained that no citizen of Cross River, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Edo states has any right to question how the resources of Rivers State was expended, emphasizing that only Rivers State citizens who elected the Government have the moral justification to demand for accountability from his administration which has implemented several infrastructural projects in all the twenty-three local government areas of the State.

On the recent declaration by Asari Dokubo that he is now the leader of Biafra, the Governor said anyone who knew the antecedent of the former Ijaw Youth Council leader would not take him seriously.

He urged the Nigerian media to stop giving credence to the activities of the likes of Dokubo and focus on more pressing challenges facing the nation.