N’Delta youths protest reappointment, extension of Port Harcourt Refinery MD

Niger Delta youths on Monday staged a protest at the premises of Port Harcourt Refining Company Limited over the reappointment of and extension of the tenure of the company’s former Managing Director, Mr Ahmed Dikko, whose tenure expired early this August.

The youths said the alleged extension of his tenure by two years by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, is a grave injustice to the Niger Delta people and a deliberate and brazen move to marginalise the people of the South-South region.

Recall that the NNPC kicked off the $1.5 billion rehabilitation of the 210, 000 barrels per day refinery in May this year.

An initiative scheduled to be done in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months.

The protesting youths who lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for the rehabilitation exercise, however, called on the President to call the NNPC GMD to order by stopping his policy of promoting the interest of the North at the expense of the long-suffering people of the Niger Delta.

The youths urged President Buhari to ensure that justice is done to the people of Niger Delta by appointing qualified indigenes of Niger Delta in the NNPC system to head the refinery and other key positions in the company.