As a follow-up to the Ijaw National Congress’s vow to resist the relocation of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, (NAPIMS) from Lagos to Abuja, the National President of the body, Prof. Benjamin Okaba has said that if anything, the headquarters of the oil firm must be relocated to the Niger Delta.
It would be recalled that the INC, through its Publicity Secretary, Ezonebi Oyakemeagbegha, had vowed to resist any move to relocate NAPIMS to Abuja following the Group General Manager of the NNPC, Bala Wunti’s instruction to the staff of the company after the collapse of a neighbouring building situated nearby in Ikoyi, Lagos.
“We are fully aware that the building is fit and very stable for staff to resume their normal duties, but, Mr. President, Mr. Mele Kyari, and his cohorts from the North are bent on pulling NAPIMS out of Lagos at all cost and has failed to listen, hear or accept any advice with respect to the resumption of work at the NAPIMS Gerrard Ikoyi building.
“It has come to our knowledge that a property too small to accommodate the over 500 staff of NAPIMS has been acquired in Abuja, but rather than address the office accommodation need of the company, another building has been rented for the staff
“We of the Niger Delta and South-South region will not continue to fold our hands and watch while our people are being treated like slaves and made to play the second fiddle role in a country that we all own”, Ezonebi had said.
However, speaking with The New Diplomat on the position of the INC, the National President, Prof. Benjamin Okaba, stated that the only way the body will accept the company’s decision was for it to be relocated to the Niger Delta which plays host to all the oil companies operating in Nigeria.
Okaba queried why the Niger Delta should be classified as not safe to be impacted on positively by the oil multinationals whereas it is safe for the exploitation of crude oil from the region, adding that it is criminal to neglect the development of the region.
He said: “the Niger Delta should not be seen to be seen to be safe for exploitation and not be safe for impactation. You must impact on the Niger Delta with development. It is not safe when you want to bring development but it is very safe when you want to exploit the people. That is criminal. That is the point I’m making.
“The IOC should relocate their headquarters to the Niger Delta including that of NAPIMS. And wherever they are doing their businesses, they should pay tax. It is an international law and it is in tandem with natural justice.
“Give to where you are taking from. Okay, oil is being exploited here but their workers are in Lagos and are paying taxes to Lagos. You now declare Bayelsa State as impoverished and that it has a low IGR. When will the IGR come up when the major source of the revenue is here and the output is somewhere else? These things don’t happen anywhere apart from Nigeria. This is why we are so disillusioned about the system.
“This is why we keep talking about restructuring – let every region control whatever that is within it and pay taxes to the centre. That is the panacea to all the problems we are talking about.
“So, this is our position. If NAPIMS headquarters must move, it must come to the Niger Delta. That is the position of the INC.”
