Fuel price hike: Ohanaeze youth absolves Lokpobiri, blames scarcity on years of mismanagement

In its bid to address the challenges of posed by the recent fuel scarcity and pump price hike, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Worldwide has absolved the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Senator Henekein Lokpobiri, saying he was not responsible for the current energy crisis.

Acting National Leader of the group, Mazi Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu in a statement on Sunday, said the current development was largely caused by several years of bad governance and mismanagement which preceded the present administration.

Okpalaezeukwu who issued the statement as part of the group resolution after the 52nd Extraordinary National Executive Committee meeting said he is optimistic that the situation will soon change for the best, given the economic policies being implemented by the government.

According to him, the Ohanaeze youths had earlier met with the Minister and submitted that the present administration was putting in measures to reform the oil sector for the overall interest of the country.

“We have had a fruitful deliberation with the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources, Distinguished Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and his team where we have expressed concerns and emphasised on the need for continuous and unrelenting reforms of the petroleum sector with policies that benefit the ordinary people and improve the overall well-being of Nigeria economy.

“We acknowledge the challenges inherent in the Removal of Subsidy and the impact of Infrastructural deficiencies in the Sector, and We are very proud of the uncommon achievements recorded so far by the Tinubu led administration ranging from increase in crude oil production.

”We therefore declare our solidarity and support to the genuine efforts and commitment of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and other collaborating agencies and entities, especially, the NNPCL, ably led by Mele Kyari and his team.

“We advocate for more effective and impactful community and youth engagement and development in ways that shall control restiveness and further address, sabotage, vandalisation and theft in the sector; and we shall continue to engage with the ministry and participate in their various development activities and programmes in order to maximize impact and serve the purpose”.