PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has reiterated his resolve to sell the country’s oil refineries if elected President in 2023.
The former vice-president stated this in an interview with the Hausa Service of Voice of America (VOA), in Washington DC, United States (US), on Tuesday.
Atiku, who came under serious criticism from Nigerians when he first proposed the idea in his policy document in 2019, told VOA that the refineries would be well-managed by businessmen.
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“My position on this is not new, I already said years ago. I will sell them, because if you give it to the businessmen, they will run these refineries better,” he said.
He also vowed to put an end oil theft when he becomes President.
“This is a different problem that we have to see how we can use the power of the government to stop because there must be cooperation between the NNPC and the security agencies who are responsible to look after oil pipelines laid,” he said.
Nigeria has three oil refineries located in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna.
Although huge amounts of money have been spent on the refineries by different administrations, including the current one, they have remained moribund for years.
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