Bayelsa Governorship Election:Group Alleges Agip Forced To Support Sylva With N500M

The Ijaw Peoples Assembly has accused multinational oil company, Agip, of allegedly making its security platform available to the All Progressives Congress for diversion of election materials in the last governorship election in Bayelsa State.

The organisation, which said the action of Agip undermined the security of the state, also claimed a fresh a plot to unleash violence during the rerun election in the state on January 9.The General Secretary of the IPA, Dave Ombe, in a statement accused of Agip of working with the APC not only by donating about N500 million to its governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva, but also afforded the party the opportunity to unleash violence in Brass Local Government Area and consequently rigged the election.

Ombe said though Agip acted that way due to alleged threat by militants loyal to Sylva to blow up its oil facilities domiciled in Brass LGA, it was not enough excuse to undermine the security of the state.The IPA claimed that by such with illicit support, Agip had put the lives of citizens at great risk in order to satisfy the selfish political interest of a few.“This amounts to satisfying the interest of a few  misguided elements as against the larger corporate existence of Bayelsa State,” the IPA stressed.

Ombe also hinted that Agip’s support for Sylva was not unconnected with the ongoing probe of massive oil spill by the state government regarding the operations of Agip, which resulted in the destruction of the ecosystem and untold hardship for the people, having destroyed their livelihood.The statement added that the insistence of Governor Henry Seriake Dickson’s administration to ensure due diligence on the part of Agip to clean up the spill and pay compensation to the communities affected swayed the oil major’s support for the APC, but which it said was not in the public interest.

While regretting that Agip could not have done so in its home country, Ombe observed that rather than donate hundreds of millions of naira to support the APC to rig the election, it should have owned up to its responsibility by accepting to do the right thing and clean up communities damaged by its oil spill.“It’s about time we let this corporate imperialist knew that they cannot get away with such impunity and irresponsible behaviour,” he stated.