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MINNA—Niger State Governor, Dr. Mu’azu Aliyu, has urged traditional rulers in the state to support the proposed removal of petroleum subsidy by the Federal Government, saying that it was in the best interest of the country.

He also asked the monarchs to support the campaign to free society of polio, considering the fact that Nigeria is among the four countries with high prevalence of polio virus.

BY WOLE MOSADOMI
Aliyu, who spoke while receiving traditional rulers who paid him Sallah homage in his private residence in Minna, yesterday, argued that there would have been no need for oil subsidy if all the refineries in the country were functional.

The governor said the continued fuel subsidy by the Federal Government would only benefit some members of a cartel which he said had been milking the country through the so-called oil subsidy rather than benefiting ordinary Nigerians the subsidy was meant for.

He said: “It is shameful that Nigeria is producing crude oil but import refined petroleum products from other countries that have no crude oil deposit…

’’This is because of the activities of the cartel which is benefitting from the subsidy and which do not want the refineries in our country to function to optimal capacity.”

Earlier, Etsu Nupe and Chairman of Niger State Council of Traditional Rulers, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, had lamented the high level of insecurity in the country and called on the government and the people to make security their watchword, according to him, no meaningful progress can be achieved economically and socially in a country where there was regular breakdown of law and order.

Yahaya said that both local and foreign investors would find it difficult to invest in any part of the country as a result of the perversive insecurity.

According to him, ‘security of lives and properties should however, not be left in the hands of government alone since security starts with an individual and should therefore be seen as the responsibility of all Nigerians.