Posted by SAMUEL OYADONGHA on
MINISTER of State of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Dakoru, yesterday, described Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha's travails as very complex, confusing and an explosive situation, pleading with Bayelsa State people not to get emotional so as not to compromise the situation
MINISTER of State of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Dakoru, yesterday, described Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha's travails as very complex, confusing and an explosive situation, pleading with Bayelsa State people not to get emotional so as not to compromise the situation.
Speaking in Yenagoa during a solidarity visit to Bayelsa State deputy governor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the minister stated that rather than embark on acts of violence which could give the impression that Alamieyeseigha supports violence, the people of the state should pray fervently for the governor at this trying moment.
Dakoru also appealed to Ijaw youths not to do anything that could hurt the nation oil industry because of the negative effect it would have on the region and the national economy. His words, 'We have a very complex and confusing situation in our hands. Very explosive situation and I was asked to come and meet you so that jointly it can be seen that the matter is being handled competently.
'Our people should not get emotional and get carried away. As a son of the soil, I understand fully how everybody in Bayelsa State must be feeling, how everybody in the Delta must be feeling. At the same time, we have to ask our people to be patient until facts are fully established because if we act without having anything established, we run the danger of making the situation even more complex by compromising the situation of His Excellency who at this time we must all hold in our prayers. We must all remember him in our prayers; we must be part of the process of sharing of whatever information we have. The matter is outside our territory. So we have to enjoin our people to stay in touch with the leadership of the state at all levels."
Reacting to Ijaw youths threat to attack British national and investments in the Niger Delta Dakoru who was recently elected OPEC president reminded them of the dangers inherent in their combative approach to the issue at stake since the oil industry formed the bed rock of the national economy from which millions of people benefit. 'We should not do anything to compromise oil and gas activities. It will be like spiting into the well from which everybody is drinking. You may think you are punishing somebody else but all of us drink from the same well whether we like it or not, we have to be very restrained."