Oil production need to increase at all cost - COAS

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, has declared that oil production must continue to go up at all cost in the interest of the country’s economy.

He said the only way to improve the economy was to ensure sustained increase in oil production.

Oluyede told troops and officers of the 6 Division in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to sustain their clampdown on all forms of illegal oil operations carried out in the Niger Delta by oil thieves.

Oluyede, who spoke on Tuesday when he visited the Headquarters of the 6 Division in the company of other senior officers, said if the country failed to make money from oil, the dollar would continue to rise.

The Army Chief, who participated in the decoration of 11 senior officers of the division with higher ranks, said if the dollars kept rising, everything would continue to be expensive in the country.

He told the troops not to obey any order that involved engaging in illegal activities and promised to improve their welfare of the troops.

Addressing the troops, he said: “There is no other way as it is now that the Dollar will come down if the government does not make money from oil because oil is the mainstay of the economy. 

“So, if we are not making money from oil,  the Dollars will keep on rising and that means food and everything will be expensive.  Nigeria is our country. We do not have any other country, so we must make Nigeria work. 

THE NATION