*Says Niger Delta is safe for investment
Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, on Friday, announced that the Niger Delta Region is safe for oil companies to conduct their businesses.
Governor Wike has therefore dismissed the claim by the oil multinationals, who use insecurity to justify their refusal to relocate their operational headquarters to the region.
The Governor made the assertion during a courtesy visit by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva and the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, at Government House, Port Harcourt.
He wondered why insecurity does not prevent the drilling of oil, but could be used to deprive the State what is due to it.
“They use insecurity issues to place us in a disadvantaged position and deny us our right.
“There is insecurity in Lagos, Kaduna and Katsina States. Yet, companies do not run away from those states. The railway projects are not stalled too.
“The multinationals are sometimes to blame because they instigate insecurity by paying militants and cultists for pipeline surveillance, and then turn around to blame it on the people.
“There is no excuse to operate outside our State. The Federal Government should compel them to relocate their headquarters to the State as the hub of the hydrocarbon industry.”
The Governor noted that the NNPC has not done anything substantial for the State after many years of operation.
“The Port Harcourt Refinery has continued to operate below installed capacity. Even the access road has been in a poor state for years.
“I urge you as Minister and members of the Board of Directors to dualise the three kilometres Road and change the narrative,” he stated.
Governor Wike commended Chief Timipre Sylva, for demonstrating patriotism by attracting federal projects to Bayelsa State and placing the interest of his state above partisan politics, while urging other Ministers to emulate him.
Earlier, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, told the Governor that plans have reached an advanced stage to rehabilitate the existing refineries in the country.
Sylva said the Federal Government decided to start the rehabilitation programme from the two refineries in Port Harcourt, because Rivers State is the headquarters of the hydrocarbon industry.
The Minister announced that a third refinery would be built to bring the number of refineries in the State to three.
He commended Governor Wike for being persistent in his quest to get the Refinery Road dualized and promised that the Ministry would support the move.
