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By Amos Okioma, Yenagoa
Following Governor Seriake Dickson’s recent onslaught against international oil companies that have been operating in the Niger Delta region for over 60 years, and the attendant environmental degradation and other effects on the host communities, the All Progressive Congress (APC) has described the governor’s recent inauguration of ‘Rise for Bayelsa Campaign’ as a political project.
Addressing journalists in Yenagoa, the APC state publicity secretary, Doifie Buokoribo, while appreciating all those in advocacy to the end the sad reality, said the governor’s gloves however fell off when he accused the IOCs of environmental terrorism and alleged that they were terrorism, criminals and responsible for the break-down of law and order.
According to Buokoribo, the IOCs were not only polluting the environment, but were also taking “their terrorists and criminal activities to a frightening level.”
Parts of the statements read: “Governor Dickson claimed oil companies under the guise of crude oil pipeline surveillance contracts funded maiming, killings and terror attacks on communities in Southern Ijaw and Nembe during the recent 2019 general elections.
“To his mind, the oil pipeline surveillance contracts awarded by the oil firms were key to the security threat in Bayelsa state. He specifically accused two chieftains of the All Progressive Congress who are oil pipeline surveillance contractors. As a party, we have a responsibility to protect our members from political persecution,” he said.
Buokoribo added that APC members were not the only people working as pipeline surveillance contractors in the state, as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are also doing the same business, alluding that the deputy governor of Bayelsa State younger brother has been an oil pipeline surveillance contractor for years.
“He is using his office to exert undue pressure on the oil companies to take the oil pipeline surveillance jobs away from our members. Clearly, this is political project, and it will not stand.”
He further added that APC would like the world to know that Dickson is on a mission to impoverish the poeple of Bayelsa State and described it as a political strategy to ensure that no one can challenge him politically.
“Crime in Bayelsa State has reached phenomenal heights. The hunger in the land is do bad now that people even steal pots of soup on fire. Governor Dickson is disturbed that a few Bayelsa people have risen above the pains and penury to thrive through the oil companies as contractors, hence the new “war” with the oil companies,” he said.
Buokoribo also decried the setting up of avalanche of commission of inquiry to probe the activities of surveillance contractors in Bayelsa, judicial commission to investigate the violence that occurred during the general elections in the state and the state commission of inquiry on environmental degradation.
“Governor Dickson needs to know that democratic governance is not the product of any commission or panel. He needs to understand that the huge governance deficit in Bayelsa State cannot be resolved by legislation. The Dickson administration is irredeemably inept,” he said.