The former Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Seriake Dickson has debunked the publications pertaining to Atala Marginal Field.
In a response personally signed by Senator Dickson, he said the response has become necessary to debunk this false propaganda with the revocation of Atala Marginal Field by the Federal Government and its subsequent reallocation.
The statement read, “Although Bayelsans and discerning members of the public would know that I am not in a position to do so, I still feel the need to make this statement.
“I hereby use this medium to state without equivocation that I am not and will never be in support of the revocation of Atala Marginal Oil Field from Bayelsa State Government, its BOCL or any other asset of the state government for that matter.
“I am not and will never be in support of its subsequent reallocation by the DPR and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to anybody.
“Long after leaving office, early this year I read the announcement of the Ministry of Petroleum and DPR, canceling some non performing licenses, including Atala Marginal Oil Field. For the first time in a long while, I put aside political differences and called Chief Timipre Sylva to register my personal displeasure at the planned revocation and that he should not let that happen to our state while he is minister. In that discussion, I also encouraged him to support as many of our people interested in the bidding round that had commenced at the time. Chief Sylva explained the rational for the nation wide policy on non performing assets including Atala which had been granted over twenty years ago without performance, but I enjoined him to make a case for Bayelsa and told him that I would spell with the governor who would get in touch with him to resolve issues. I relayed this concession to the governor who also expressed his displeasure to the revocation and promised to meet with the minister and the president and I believed the issues had been resolved.
“After seeing the false and misleading statement spreading in the public domain Today again, I discussed with the governor on it and he explained to me that he has already taken administrative steps to ressolve it, a position I fully support
“I call on Bayelsans to discard any unnecessary rumor, name calling and propaganda and support the state government to resolve this issue which I believe will be done in the interest of the state. This I will support wholeheartedly and I call on the Minister of state for Petroleum who is also a Bayelsan to support and work with the state government to resolve this for the benefit of our people, so at the end of the day, Bayelsa state does not lose out, the statement concluded
