Tashikalmah Hallah And Francis Okeke
24 June 2008
The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) yesterday met with top government officials and military chiefs over daring militants attacks on oil installations that had knocked off 15% of Nigeria's daily production.
The meeting with the Defence Minister, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, representatives of the Chief of Defence Staff, Minister of State Petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia, Chief Executives of the Major Oil companies and other stake holders at the National Assembly stressed the need to find a lasting solution to militancy in the Niger Delta region.
The committee chairman, Tam Brisibe told newsmen after the meeting:"Because of what happened in Bonga, this committee decides that all efforts should be made to find answers to what actually happened on that day and how a facility like the Bonga was hit. Of course we do not think that sitting here today; we will be able to get all the answers immediately.
"We started off this morning by having a meeting with the Minister of Defence and the representative of Chief of Defence Staff. We subsequently had meetings with ministry of energy, NNPC and some international oil companies operating in Nigeria
"From the security operatives, the information we got from their end was that since Thursday, they themselves have been gathering information as to what happened and there is a report that will be presented on the incident of Thursday the 19th June 2008.
He added that "The minister of defence said that this report will contain not just information on what happened on that day but will also make comments on what they feel as security agents ought to be done to prevent such event happening again in the future.
"From the statement of the minister of defence, considering the fact that another meeting of security chiefs is being slated for today and the investigation is on going. at this point, we will not be able to give full details on the side of security agencies as to what happened.
"They have given us some information certainly, and we have asked for and the minister of defence has said that a written report will be sent to us on the investigations as to the events of June 19th.
He went on to say that inputs from all relevant bodies are necessary to tackle the issue.
"We subsequently had meetings with the international oil companies to ask them about their own internal security arrangements and arrangements they have with Nigerian security forces.
"In our discussion, we briefly also talked about what they feel ought to be done. Part of the solution, some of them are thinking of is the fact that there definitely has to be increased and active participation of persons from the host communities in terms of what we call local content participation. But not just local content, they actually feel that what we ought to be aiming for is active ownership of the assets in the oil industry as much as is practicable by certain organizations from the host communities.
He also called for the utilisation of other approaches to the Niger Delta issue apart from the military action that obtained in the immediate past.
"The security implications are there. The issues of the Niger Delta are also there because we might actually not be able to deal with the security situation if we do not deal with the issues of the Niger Delta.
"At the end of today's meeting, it was decided that there would be a further meeting because today's meeting was held separately; one with the security operatives and one with the international oil companies. After that meeting, we are going to have a joint meeting with all of those organisations by which time the report from the security agencies would be ready and certainly, any and all facts that we have available that we can give to the Nigerian public would be given to them."
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