Buhari promises to address controversy around OML 46

President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday pledged that he will address three major requests, including the return of OML 46, to Bayelsa state tabled by Governor Duoye Diri, of Bayelsa State, with “promptness and immediacy.”

The OML 46 oil Well, was illegally awarded to Halkin Exploration and Production Company Limited, by the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), in contravention of the Presidential directive.

The DPR had after the revocation of the oil field, the presidency intervened, considered the numerous petitions from the various marginal owners and directed that the fields be rewarded on a discretionary basis with preference to the previous owners.

The President, while responding to an address by the Governor during his visit to the State House in Abuja, stressed the need for immediate response to the Governor, saying, “Given the period we are in, I know most of you are in the field campaigning. I will respond to your requests as quickly as possible.”

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Governor Diri, who was accompanied on the visit by his immediate predecessor, Seriake Dickson, His Royal Majesty, Alfred Diete-Spiff and the Chairman of the State’s Council of Traditional Rulers, His Royal Majesty, Bubaraye Dakolo, asked for three important things from the President.

He said he wanted the Federal Government to take over the Bayelsa State Medical University, now that government is setting up medical hospitals in the Geopolitical Zones; a speedy completion of three Federal roads in each of the Senatorial Districts; and the restoration of the Oil Mining Licence, “OML 46” to Bayelsa State, which he said was unjustly revoked and awarded to a private company.

OML 46, according to the Governor, is “emotional” to Bayelsans, whom he said, possessed the technical and financial capacity to manage the oil well.

Governor Diri also congratulated the President on the nation’s attainment of 62nd Anniversary which coincides with Bayelsa’s 30th year of creation, and urged the President to continue with his balanced approach to issues of national development.