Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has said only five local government areas will receive the N20 million pledge he made for the fight against oil bunkering.
According to the Governor, only five local government areas had shown commitment to the fight.
He made the observation when he met with heads of security agencies and the five Local Government Chairmen at the Government House in Port-Harcourt on Friday.
Gov. Wike had in January pledged to give the sum of N20 million to each of the 23 local government councils to enable them hire equipment for the destruction of illegal refineries in their domain.
The promise followed an earlier pledge of N2 million for any oil bunkering site discovered by the LGA chairmen.
But speaking at the meeting on Friday, the Governor said only five local government areas have satisfied the conditions to get the fund.
He said “I will not give a Local Government money when I have not seen any commitment. No, I won’t do that. I want to see commitment. So, it is only those that have shown commitment that I have approved the money for.”
The Governor further explained that the list containing names of members of the taskforce to be set up by the State to fight illegal bunkering has been forwarded to the Department of State Services for profiling.
Addressing the DSS, the Governor said “it is important that when you profile them, you do it quickly too so that they can start work. Those in whom we have no trust, we will remove them.”