Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs, says the
major problem of the country is corruption.
Akpabio spoke on Monday at a town hall meeting on the
protection of oil and gas infrastructure in the country, held in Abuja.
The minister said international oil companies (IOCs) may be
discouraged from remitting what is due to host communities because of
corruption, since such funds appear unaccounted for.
“The IOCs must have been discouraged by the way the funds
made available were used by NDDC. You cannot point to any substantial
development in any of the nine states, in spite of the money that has so far
gone into the NDDC,” he said.
“So, I thank the president for trying to find out how much
has gone into the NDDC and how much has been judiciously spent.
“The reality is that corruption is the major problem of
Nigeria. Even when the first prime minister took over from the British
government, the British drew as part of their report that the greatest problem
facing Nigeria in 1960 was corruption.
“With corruption, no matter the amount we put for the oil
communities, we might end up with communal clashes.”
The minister also said the IOCs owe the Niger Delta about
$4.2 billion.
“When NDDC came on board, the IOCs collectively owed the
NDDC remittance of about $4.2 billion,” Akpabio said.
“It is not only the IOCs alone, because some of the
contracts are JVCs [joint venture contracts]. The JVCs are part of these
impediments, because NAPIMS [National Petroleum Investment Management Services]
or so must collaborate with the IOCs before some of those releases are made.
“We implore members of the national assembly to look into
this, because I noticed that there are no sanctions for non-payment of the
three percent.
“So, it means every you have to go cap-in-hand, begging the
oil communities to pay their percentage as a result of their lackadaisical
attitude. So, the region has not been able to get the required funds.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com