- says fighting criminality in region without putting in place infrastructure won’t work
- Meets Tinubu over Warri to Escravos road, dredging of Warri, Koko ports
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The chairman and chief executive officer of A & E group, a company with investments in oil and gas, construction, haulage, entertainment and the hospitality industry, Ayiri Emami, has declared that oil theft in Delta State in the Niger Delta region has gone down by 80 percent, as a result of the efforts of the communities in the state.
He stated this while fielding questions from the State House Correspondents after meeting with President Bola Tinubu, where he came to brief him on the deplorable state of the Warri-Escravos road and the need to dredge the Koko and Warri ports.
Emami, who is also a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), said that fighting criminality in the Niger Delta without putting in place infrastructure in the region will not achieve any results.
When asked how the oil-producing communities are working with the federal government to stop oil theft, he responded that the region’s relevant stakeholders’ actions had made a significant difference in the decline in oil theft.
Ayiri said, “Currently, I know from Delta, I can speak around Delta state that the issue of oil theft is drastically going down, it has reduced to about 80 to 90% because the company handling the job at the moment and some of us are involved and the job is being handled properly.
“To some extent, we’re doing good in Delta and some of these communities, the actors are being carried along. But we still want them to do more. Not just giving contracts these people need good road, good water, electricity, good hospital.
“Once those things are in place in those environment…you won’t believe if you go to somewhere like Escravos to get to the shore is problem. So we need to sit down with the PIA, we need to sit down to see what we can do.
“I don’t think fighting all these criminality issues without putting in proper infrastructure, will work, it won’t work. But telling the President you need to do this as in view of some of us coming out to agitate strongly to tell our brothers that there is no need to go into breaking of pipelines.
“But we just need to do that, we just need to fix the communities because that is the place that lays the golden eggs but if you go to that place it is like hell. I really do my things in different way, I go with protests. I will not encourage anybody to go and break federal government facility or to go and break pipe.
“Once you do that the federal government will use that same money that they want to use to develop the place, they will use it to go and fix the pipe first. So Penny wise, Pound foolish.”
Speaking on the purpose of his visit, Ayeri said: “Sometime last year if you recall, in September, I was here (State House) to see Mr. President, there were some issues I brought before him and those issues were part of his promises during the campaign. So he said when he comes back from America, he will definitely call me to come back here. that’s why I’m here.
“One of those issues have to do with the road from Warri to Escravos, he made promises that once he is elected, if we vote for him, he was going to ensure that that road is constructed. So, I came here with the Minister for Niger Delta so that they can put heads together on how that road can be constructed for us in which he gave a nod.
“He asked the Minister to go and put up his memo and come back on how they can go about it. This is one of the issues. The other issues have to do with politics, personal issues, it has to do with the immediate environment in our area.
“You know, the Warri port has been an issue till date. And I made complaint to him about the pipe that is giving problem at bar mouth. So he said he is going to get across to the GMD (Group Chief Executive Officer) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), so that they will sit, look at it on how they can relocate the pipe so that proper dredging can be carried out for vessel to flow into Warri. So those are basically the issues why I came to see him.”
Asked if he discussed the issue of Koko Port with President Tinubu, the APC chieftain said: “Definitely once you talk about Warri Port, you will definitely talk about Koko Port, Sapele Port but once that pipe is sorted out because that’s where the problem is. If you don’t relocate those pipes no matter the amount of dragging, sweeping you’ll be doing, it will still remain a problem and the marketers around that area, those of us that have facilities around the area, we have suffered a lot.
“So, he needs to see what they can do and he has promised that he is going to call the Minister for Petroleum and see what they can do immediately with the GMD.”