Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has denounced the prevailing politics of bitterness in the state, alleging that his Senator attempted to obstruct members of the Senate Adhoc Committee on Turnaround Maintenance of Nigerian Refineries from extending the customary courtesy visit to him.

Fubara is a constituent of Rivers Southeast represented by Senator Barry Mpigi.

Mpigi was in Rivers with other members of the Senate Adhoc Committee led by Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Uba, to inspect the ongoing turnaround maintenance of the Port Harcourt Refinery but was conspicuously missing when the committee paid a courtesy visit to Fubara in Government House on Friday night.

Mpigi belongs to the camp of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Chief Nyesom Wike, in the ongoing political tussle that had divided the state into Wike and Fubara groups.

While addressing the senators, Fubara said: “I am aware that this is not the actual number of members of this committee. You are more than this. I am also aware that the senator representing, unfortunately, my senatorial district, didn’t want you to come here.

“What you are doing is the right thing. Politics is a business of interest. Your worse enemy today can become your best friend tomorrow. It’s a business of interest. But the interest of the people should come first.

“Unfortunately, some people think it is something that has to do with life or death. And that is one mistake everybody makes when you take this business outside of the normal principles and rules.”

“Our government has no business with politics of bitterness because we have the interest of our people at heart. We take their wellbeing as our priority, because that is why they gave us the mandate to govern them. So, their interest, which is the interest of the State, comes first in our scheme of things”.

Fubara warned that anybody disrespecting a man in authority either for his age or status, could succeed temporarily but tsuch insults would boomerang with greater and bigger pain.

He said: “We might be a state, as being presented that we have issues. But we don’t have any issues. Our eyes are on the ball to deliver for our people. Even in the face of this deliberate distraction, we will not fail our people because at the end, it is the impact we make on our people that counts.”

The Governor, in a statemeny by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Nelson Chukwudi, reminded the senators of the peaceful nature and hospitality of the state and its people, and urged them to feel free to interact with the government for the mutual benefit of all stakeholders.

He reiterated that his administration was working in tandem with President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government’s policies designed to make life better for the people through the Renewed Hope Agenda.

Fubara said that the Woji-Aleto-Alesa-Refinery Road, now 70 per cent completed, was being constructed by his government to provide a bypass to easily access the Port Harcourt Refinery and reduce traffic from the East-West Road.

The governor said the purpose of governance was to make life easy for the people and expressed delight that the Senate Committee’s investigation would result in making life easy and meaningful to everyone.

He said: “We, as a State, before the commencement of the rehabilitation job, had a contribution that we wanted to make to support the work at the refinery because of the deplorable state of the East-West Road.

“The purpose of governance is to make life easy for the people. I am happy that your investigation would result in making life easy for the people”.

Fubara highlighted the benefits of getting the refinery to work again saying it would help to reduce importation of refined petroleum products.

He said: “When the refinery restarts production, there will be petroleum products available locally. The issue of importation will go down. We will now make impact, economy will grow, internally generated revenue will increase. More projects will be executed in this State. You can see that it’s a chain effect thing. So, I want to thank you”.

In his presentation, the Chairman of the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee to Investigate the Turnaround Maintenance of Nigeria’s Refineries, Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah (representing Anambra South Senatorial District), said they were at Warri Refinery on Thursday for the same mission.

He said they came to Port Harcourt to investigate the work that had been done and assess the level of preparedness of both the old and new Port Harcourt Refinery to recommence operations.

Senator Ubah said: “We will recall that the old Port Harcourt Refinery was the first refinery in Nigeria built in 1965, and the second one was built in 1989. And for so long now, they have not been in active operations.

“We are pleased to note that what we saw is most encouraging as the refinery upgrade and full rehabilitation is almost at 90 percent completed. We are confident that the refinery will soon be operational before the end of the year”.