Legalise, integrate artisanal refining of crude oil for economic benefits, YEAC writes Tinubu

The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria, has written President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, demanding that he immediately starts up a process of legalising artisanal refining of petroleum products m in the Niger Delta region as a means of resolving the current economic hardship in the nation. YEAC advised the President in the document which was also copied the relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of Government, the National Security Adviser including the Service Chiefs among many others to set up a Special task-force to be stationed around the Gulf of Guinea to end what they described as organisation crime.

YEAC disclosed these in a communique it submitted to the president after its National Conference on Organised Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NACOCINAG) and the official launch of the Network on Organised Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea, NOCINAG, supported by Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime/Resilience Fund, Austria. The Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Fyneface Dumnamene said the communique has admonished President Tinubu to implement the recommendations in order to mitigate organised crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea. Dummamene said it would be more productive if the nation legalizes artisanal refining of petroleum products and integrates the refiners, adding that such would improve the nations economic and encourage development.

He said the body advocated: “The establishment of a Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) proposed by YEAC-Nigeria for the innovation, modernisation, standardisation, legalisation, and integration of artisanal refineries into the national economy as a corresponding organised crime mitigation mechanism for artisanal crude oil refiners in the Niger Delta, like the illegal gold miners in parts of North and Western Nigeria that the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI) is established for them to mitigate organised crime in gold mining. “Immediate issuance of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s approved 18 Modular Refineries licenses for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta to mitigate organised crime and support sustainable youth empowerment; Partnership with other Presidents in the Gulf of Guinea for the establishment of an effective task-force against organised crime to be known as “Taskforce Against Organised Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (TAOCINAG)”