Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has described the Niger Delta region a safe haven for companies to conduct their businesses.
Wike also dismissed multinational companies, who use insecurity to justify their refusal to relocate their operational headquarters to the region.
The governor made the assertion yesterday during a courtesy visit by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipri Sylva, and the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at Government House, Port Harcourt.
He wondered why insecurity did not prevent the drilling of oil, but could be used to deprive the state what is due to it.
He said: “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 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,” he said.
The governor said 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 said.
Governor Wike commended the patriotism Sylva has demonstrated by attracting federal projects to his state and urged other ministers to emulate him.
He said even if the minister is of the opposition party in Bayelsa, his sense of patriotism has made him to place the interest of the state above partisan interests.
Earlier, Sylva told the governor that plans have reached an advanced stage to rehabilitate the existing refineries in the country.
He said the Federal Government decided to start the rehabilitation programme from the two refineries in Port Harcourt because the state is the headquarters of the hydrocarbon industry.
