FORMER Governor
of Bayelsa State and a delegate at the National Conference, Chief
Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, has berated those calling for the reduction of
the 13 per cent derivation to five per cent, declaring that he would
not give up fighting for resource control until the Niger Delta region
begins to controls its resources.He said: “I put on the toga of resource
control and I will never waver until we control our resources and
determine what we want to do with it and pay appropriate tax to the
central government. I, for one, do see peace in this country.
Our environment
is destroyed. There is a new trend now that Nigerians do not know; it
is the prevalence of cancer among our women. People are dying. The
effects of oil exploration are so much and heavy on our people. ”
''They are
sharing money; they are not thinking of what we are going through back
there. Oil is a wasting asset. If we destroy our land then we cannot
even feed ourselves.”LMAO
Asked what must
be put in place to address the raging cases of oil theft in Nigeria,
Alamieyeseigha, a member of Committee on Public Finance and Revenue, who
urged the government to write to foreign embassies that are engaged in oil exploration
in the country, however, said that the Air Force rather than Navy
should take total control of monitoring and checking oil bunkering.
His words: “The
way forward to me is very simple. We have identified the problem; it is
because of the value change. Nigerian oil outside is very lucrative
when refined.
“There is also the banking system. When you make money, it is through the banks that you get the money back into the country, so they are also involved.
”The people that are in the industry have the technical know-how to get this crude oil from very high pressure
pipes. The boys in the creek do not have the connections to bring ships
from abroad, so in effect, we have buyers. If we don’t have buyers then
the market would be saturated and it will not be profitable.
”So, how do we
stop buyers of our crude oil that is so unique in the international
market? You have to be very courageous and be ready to pay any price
because they will try to bring your government down because it is huge
amount of money they are making.
“So if you have
the courage, the first step you should take is to inform the cartel
through their embassies because ships are registered in their country
and their destinations are also known. The type of business they do is
also known, the routes they ply are also known.
“So what are they coming to do in our exclusive economic zone, especially in the Niger Delta?”
The former
governor, who also accused the expatriates of being responsible for the
proliferation of weapons in the country, especially from Ukraine, said:
“They are the ones bringing weapons into the country, especially ships
from places like Ukraine. They take the crude oil and pay in weapons.
“We know all these and the information is available. So, the Federal Governmentshould
write the embassies operating in Nigeria, saying, ‘Look, this is our
problem; inform your home government not to release their ships for
these nefarious activities.’
“Give them
time, they have been doing it for so many years, give them time say
three months, after three months if we see any of your ships in
unauthorised areas, we are going to destroy it.”
“By the time you destroy three or four vessels, no country would allow its vessel to come and operate.
“So there will
be no buyer and once there is no buyer, the collaborators among us would
look for another job because the industry has been made unattractive.
“It is a simple way of discouraging bunkering.culled
hmmmm... you again!!!!
ReplyDeleteLooters still in govt, i wonder what this country has become.
ReplyDelete