Adams Oshiomhole, the Edo North senatorial candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has blamed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the persistent fuel scarcity in the country.
Mr Oshiomhole, a former national chairman of the ruling party, heaped the blame on Wednesday evening while featuring on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
“We must ask the question: who destroyed the refineries?” the former Edo governor queried. “What was the condition of the refineries by 1999? From 1999 to 2015, PDP was in power for 16 years. During this 16 years, if they bring out the figure, what they claimed to have spent maintaining these refineries, you will faint.
“And a PDP president decided to privatise the refineries, that was (Olusegun) Obasanjo, towards the tail end of his tenure, another PDP president came and revised the privatisation, promised six months that fuel will be available.
“So, if you have to talk about the maintenance of the refineries, you will have to trace it to the 16 years of the PDP, they couldn’t fix it,” Oshiomhole added.
The APC which has been in power since 2015, over the perceived misrule of the PDP, has spent most of its time casting blames. The regime has blamed God, the opposition, teachers, technology, COVID-19, retired civil servants, internet, secessionist groups, deceased Murtala Mohammed, middlemen, Russia-Ukraine war, Media, Nigerians and a host of others for its inability to deliver its campaign promises.
When they sought power, the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari promised to build a refinery every single year. Mr Buhari who doubles as the Petroleum Minister had then described fuel subsidy as a fraud but has been unable to abolish it since taking over power.
While in opposition, he led massive protests that forced the Goodluck Jonathan administration to abort plans of scrapping fuel subsidy, a decision that will increase the price of the commodity from N84 to N145 at the time.
With the scarcity of petrol and the price increasing currently to N260 in most part of the country, the president says he has done his best and was looking forward to lazying around like his age mates.
