Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has asked the Federal Government to halt and review a refinery rehabilitation agreement involving the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and two Chinese companies.

The partnership is linked to plans to revive the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, but Atiku says the arrangement needs stronger scrutiny before any further steps are taken.

He expressed concern that the firms involved – Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd. may not have the required experience to handle full-scale refinery rehabilitation projects.

According to him, one of the companies mainly focuses on petrochemical production, while the other is more involved in industrial park management, raising doubts about their ability to manage complex oil refining systems.

Atiku also pointed to previous refinery rehabilitation efforts that cost billions of dollars but delivered little progress, warning that Nigeria risks repeating past mistakes if the new agreement is not properly reviewed.

He argued that critical national assets like refineries should only be handled by firms with proven global expertise in refinery engineering and operations, not companies without a strong track record in that field.

The former vice president further cautioned that continuing with opaque or poorly explained agreements could deepen public distrust and waste more national resources.

He called for full transparency in the deal and urged authorities to ensure that any future partnerships involving Nigeria’s oil infrastructure are backed by clear technical capacity and accountability.