Your Safety No Longer Guaranteed - Ijaw Group To IOCs
Seven communities in the oil rich state of Delta have given
oil companies in the state seven days to leave their abode or in their own
words, ”face dire consequences.”
The communities, namely; Diebiri, Egbema, Gbaramatu,
Iduwini, Ogbe-Ijoh, Ogulagha and Kou kingdoms, in are hosts to flow-stations
and well heads operated by Agip, Neconde
Energy Ltd, Chevron Nigeria Ltd, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC)
and Shell Development Petroleum Company (SPDC).
The communities also called on foreign embassies in Nigeria
to advise their nationals in their territories to vacate their personnel and
contractors as their safety would no longer be guaranteed henceforth.
The statement by the communities was signed by Comrade Sherif
Mulade and 20 other representatives of the various communities and made
available to the Nigerian Tribune.
Not done, the communities called on the Delta State
government to release the alleged N300 billion owed the Delta State Oil
Producing Development Commission (DESOPADEC) meant for the development of the
communities.
The statement read in part, “Having carefully and
painstakingly studied the executive bill at the floor of the Delta State House
of Assembly on the proposed DESOPADEC Amendment Bill, we, in strong terms,
condemn and reject the bill in its entirety as it seeks to rip us off of the 13
percent derivation fund given to the oil and gas producing communities in the
state.
“The bill is inimical to the principle of derivation and
insensitive to the peculiarities of the oil-producing
communities.
“Therefore, we will not fold our arms and watch the Delta
State government to take away our economic and political right by way of politicising
the 13 per cent derivation fund meant to develop our communities through
DESOPADEC.”
Recently, the Ijaw nation said they will initiate the
process of renegotiating the basis of their coexistence with other ethnic
groups in Nigeria.
Even as the former minister of Niger Delta affairs, Elder
Godsday Orubebe, has appealed to Ijaw people to go back to fishing in order to
reduce the region’s dependence on oil.
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