The Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has described environmental campaign, ‘Rise for Bayelsa’, and verbal attacks launched against activities of international oil companies by Governor Seriake Dickson as politically motivated.
Dickson recently inaugurated the Bayelsa State Environmental Degradation Commission of Inquiry with a mandate to investigate sharp practices of oil multinationals that had caused environmental degradation in the state and the Niger Delta region. But the APC State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo, dismissed the allegation as a move meant to mount pressure the oil companies, disengage APC members working as pipeline contractors in the state.
He said: “To the mind of the governor, the oil pipeline surveillance contracts awarded by the oil firms were key to the security threat in Bayelsa State. He specifically accused two chieftains of the All Progressives Congress , who are oil pipeline surveillance contractors, of security breaches in the state.“We neither hold brief for the international oil corporations nor do we speak in the name of the surveillance contractors.