From Douglas Blessing in Port Harcourt
The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company – a subsidiary of NNPC Ltd has been urged to dialogue with the host communities of Oil Mining Licence (OML) 11 before giving the operatorship license to any oil company.
The communities under the aegis of Ogoni, Asa, Imo River OML11 Oil Producing Communities made the call yesterday, during the inauguration of committee at Owaza, Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State.
The group said the host communities must be consulted before any oil operator is giving license to operate OML11.
Speaking, Chairman of the Committee, Chief Gani Topba, said it was imperative to ensure members of the host communities benefits from the oil in their land, having suffered for many years.
Topba regretted that the people remain in abject poverty while multinationals kept making more money from their
“There have been agitations in this part of OML11 when Shell’s license was about to be renewed, we all gathered here, and did a meeting demanding that Federal Government should not reissued the license.
“We all agreed that the government should give the license to Nigerian Petroleum Company(NPDC). And today, the federal government has given NPDC the license. The community supported NPDC but NPDC need to have proper discussion with the community.
“NPDC have taken over the facility but have not had talks with the community but they are having an agreement with Sahara energy to enter the place. How can NDPC not dialogue with the host communities before bringing in another company.”
He said failure of NPDC to have a prior dialogue with the host communities of OML11 before arriving at Sahara Energy, was tantamount to undermining the interest of the community.
He also demanded for the UNEP assessment of Asa, Imo River axis of OML11 to ensure a clean-up.
“The community will not accept Sahara energy, because they had an agreement with NPDC. So NPDC need to come with their plan and discuss with the community then community will now tell them the interest of the community.
“So one of the things we are going to do is we are going to look into how the NPDC must dialogue with community. First we have rejected Sahara Energy totally.
“And when will the cleanup of the place kick off. These are serious issues. How are we going to get light. We have gas and how are they going to do our roads. The environments are destroyed. The campaign that we are going to start in this part of OML 11 is to mobilise and sensitise our people to understand that it is all about future.
“Yes, we appreciate the step the president of the country took by not giving the license to Shell but he needs to take more steps beyond that to know how it will benefit the community.
“And our position is this; the Federal Government must ask UNEP to come here to assess this land so we can know the level of environmental degradation that have been done so that clean up can take place.
“Anybody that said they have a license to operate OML11, they do don’t, we have not given anybody any social license and as a group we are giving ultimatum to NPDC to immediately end any discussion with Sahara energy and come and talk with the community and if NPDC continually talk with Sahara they are undermining our collective interest and if they do that we may end up rejecting NPDC.
“So if NPDC wants to come here, they should drop Sahara and come to the community. Leaders are here, traditional leaders, women and youths, they should come and talk to us.”
Earlier, the paramount ruler of Owaza community in Asa in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State, Eze Obioma Nworgu, also pleaded that on the federal government to clean up oil impacted communities in the area.
Nworgu lamented that despite being a major host to OML11 and have a flow station situated in the community, the people lacks electricity, good roads and employment.
He said: “Ogoni, Asa OML11 oil-producing communities have suffered a lot. We want the Federal Government to come to the aid of our people. Since 1958 when oil exploration began by SPDC they have not done anything here in Asa land talk less of Owaza, Isimiri, Imo River oil fields. We can not access the road to Owaza. The youth, have no employment. The youths are suffering, they are blaming the traditional rulers for their woes. We are calling on the newly inaugurated committee to do effective work to ensure government and multinational do the needful”.
