BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

Lagos—PETROLEUM and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, yesterday berated Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, NECA, over its call for the privatisation of the nation’s refineries.

It said private investors should concentrate on establishing their own refineries instead of focusing on buying the state owned refineries.

Reacting to a statement credited to NECA Director-General, Mr. Segun Oshinowo that the four refineries should be privatised without further delay,  PENGASSAN advised NECA to make its members build their own refineries and compete with the public refineries instead of struggling to buy them (existing refineries).

Speaking in Lagos, the PENGASSAN President,  Babatunde Ogun, said “Why is NECA members afraid of competition? Why can’t they go and build their own refinery if they are interested in the downstream sector of the nation’s oil and gas industry? Why are they bent on buying existing refineries knowing full well that these refineries are national assets and that they will do little or nothing to make them work?