A controversy over the sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries consumed a major part of the Senate Public Hearing on the contending issue on the last general strike on Wednesday just as the lawmakers queried the sale of $720m of the refineries to Blue Star Industries.

Blue Star Industries, which comprises Zenon, Transcorp and Dangote, has bought the Port Harcourt Refinery for $561m and the Kaduna Refinery for $160m.
But the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mrs. Irene Chigbue, in her presentation to the committee, said the sale of the refineries was transparent and followed due process.
She added the value for which the refineries were sold was justifiable and was based on expert evaluation of international standards.

But the presentation made to the committee suggested that prior to the sale of the Kaduna refinery, about $200m had been used in Turn Around Maintenance and for the procurement of equipment for the refinery.
The committee noted that although such an amount was spent for maintaining the refinery, it was sold to Blue Star Industries for $160m.
It also raised questions on the sale of the refineries to the same group of companies while there were other companies who were qualified.

Chairman of the committee, Bassey Ewa Henshaw, made reference to the submission of the Nigeria Labour Congress, which valued the Port Harcourt Refinery at over $2bn.
He said the materials in stock at the refinery were valued at $800m, while finished and products in transit were valued at $150m.
He added that the tank farm of the refinery was also valued at over $700m. He called on Chigbue to reconcile these figures.

Senator Danso Sodangi also noted that there was something wrong with the way the refineries were sold.
He argued that the refineries were not as bad as they were painted, given that a lot of work was being done to get the refineries in place.
He disagreed with the BPE director-general that the refineries were so bad that the refineries had to be devalued.

In his own comment, Senator Dahiru Umaru pointed out that there was a curious coincidence between the date of payments for the refineries and the exit date of the last administration.
According to him,”The payments were made two days to the handing over of the last administration; why should the government hurriedly want to sell off the refineries, when a new government was coming in?”

He noted that the sale of the Kaduna refinery did not follow due process, given the fact that the proper bidding process was not followed.

But Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello rose in defence of the BPE when she argued that since the refineries had packed up, the value had expectedly depreciated.
She said,”No businessman would put his money on a facility that was packed up for inefficiency.
”I have a car parked in front of my house at Abeokuta not working. If somebody wants to buy it, he would certainly want to buy it as a scrap.”
She said from the records, the problem of pipeline vandalisation and other facility problems might have reduced the value of the refineries to what the buyers had to pay.