Gov Diri tasks oil companies to relocate headquarters to Bayelsa

By Ebi Perekeme

The Governor of Bayelsa State, Sen. Douye Diri has called on oil companies benefiting from its resources to relocate their headquarters to the state.

The governor, who allayed fears of insecurity, which had been the narrative of the oil companies, promised that his administration would ensure round the clock security of assets beneficial to the national and state economy.

He made the call, yesterday, when he received the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Simbi Wabote. and his board members on a courtesy visit to his office in Government House, Yenagoa.

Diri in a statement by his acting Chief Press Secretary, Mr Daniel Alabrah, quoted the governor as saying that with the completion of the NCDMB 17-storey building and siting of other major ongoing projects by the board, the state was ready to take over the oil and gas industry.

His words: “Let me restate our earlier call for oil companies to please come back to the Niger Delta and site their headquarters here, particularly in Bayelsa. We are set by virtue of what the NCDMB is doing and what the state government is doing and will continue to do. Let me invite you to expand your offices in Bayelsa.

“For those yet to have offices, please come and build your headquarters in Bayelsa. That way the issues of capital flight from where the golden egg is being laid will be reduced. Even the issue of militancy, which has subsided, will be brought to its barest minimum.

“As a government, from the beginning we have emphasised that we are ready to work peacefully and in an environment that is free of rancour with the oil companies and ready to dialogue with the oil companies that the era of militancy is over.”

Speaking earlier, Simbi Wabote congratulated Diri on his emergence as governor and said the board was ready to partner his administration to achieve common goals.

Wabote noted that under the leadership of the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, the board had embarked on numerous projects like the 17-storey building known as the Nigerian Content Tower, which the President would commission virtually on Thursday, the Bayelsa Nogasp Power Plant, a 25-hectare industrial park, the Oloibiri Oil Museum and Research Centre among others.