Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has alleged that sponsors of illegal oil refining in Nigeria are not in Rivers State but in Abuja.
Fubara made the allegation when he received a Federal Government delegation on the security of oil and gas assets led by the National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, paid him a courtesy call at the Government House in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Without going into specific details, the governor further said the culprits have export licences and insisted that the nefarious activities thrive because the support they receive from Abuja.
Fubara said: “The truth has to be said. What brings all these wahala is unemployment and poverty. But, who are the big people in this business? They are not people here; they are those people in Abuja, who have licences and who do this exportation. It’s not my people here.
“If those people in Abuja are not encouraging it, I don’t think the business will flourish, that’s the truth.”
He faulted the Federal Government for giving the pipeline surveillance contract to one person, saying better results would have been achieved if the government had engaged the communities that are more conversant with the Niger Delta terrain.
The governor noted that illegal refining a tivities make the environment difficult, adding that Rivers State was among of the first states to launch a war against such unwholesome activities.
He also said his government had continued with the committee set up by the previous administration to curb illegal oil refining activities in the state.
“Security of the pipeline should not be given to one man or to one person, who will say, ‘You’re going to assign somebody from Kalabari, to come and control what is going on in Ogba/Egbema.’ It’s not possible,” the governor said.
“You can understand that there is no way it will work. We need to come down and look at it in such a way that it will bring in all these communities. Once we are able to catch them, we make them part of the process. There is no other way about it. It will, on its own, just go down.”
Ribadu was accompanied on the visit by high-ranking officials, including the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Christopher Gwabin Musa, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen Taoreed Lagbaja; Minister of Defence, Muhammed Badaru; Minister of State (Oil) for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, among others.
