Fidelis Soriwei, Abuja


Indications emerged on Tuesday that the multinational oil firms operating in the Niger Delta were not acting on the directive by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to oil companies to relocate their operational headquarters to the Niger Delta.

The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, said that the chief executive officers of the oil firms said in a meeting he attended that the report of a directive issued by Osinbajo to the oil firms was a rumour.

The minister made the comment at the third quarterly meeting of the ministers of Niger Delta Affairs , Petroleum Resources, Niger Delta governors and the representatives of the oil firms in Abuja on Tuesday.

Usani was reacting to a question from a reporter during a session with the media on what the oil firms were doing to carry out the Acting President ’s directive to the oil firms to relocate their operational headquarters to the Niger Delta.

Responding, the minister stressed that the oil executives said that their operational headquarters were still where they had always been.

He said, “Well, I am sure that this very medium is for coordination, and this being the case, if we delve into issues of policy and directives we may be defaulting at the lower level or the top level.

“But what I can tell you is that in one of the meetings we had, this question came up and the CEOs said that relocation order was just rumour and that the headquarters of their corporate organisations were still where they have been. I am not speaking for them but this is what I heard them say.

“ So, I would wish that if you have any further curiosity, I don’t want us to provoke it on this platform, you waylay them, you know how to get them.”

The minister said that the government would organise a national council on Niger Delta between September 10 and September 15, 2017 .

He urged the stakeholders to send memos on what could be done to promote the development of the region to the affected ministries.

Also, the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh (retd.), said the government had spent N 34bn on the sponsorship of the education of beneficiaries of the programme in the last three years.

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The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, said that the chief executive officers of the oil firms said in a meeting he attended that the report of a directive issued by Osinbajo to the oil firms was a rumour.