Brave Dickson
An illustrious son of Ogoniland in Rivers State, Chief Gani Topba has accused some major plays in the oil industry whose names he did not disclose of fueling crisis in Ogoniland in order for his oil firm not to have OML 11 operatorship license.
Chief Topba said this at a peace meeting with stakeholders of his community, Zaakpor on Friday in Port Harcourt.
He said, “Since my company indicated interest to have the operatorship license of OML 11, there has been crisis in my community and other parts of Ogoniland.
“The crisis now has three dimensions which include, cultism, political and economic power.
“A lot of people have been killed as a result of the crisis in my area. Our women have fled their homes for fear of being killed. As a result, we have come to see how we can collectively stop it.
“You recalled, I told the federal government that if my company explored the oil mining lease 11 popularly called OML 11, the level of peace my area will witness will not warrant the deployment of security agents to Ogoniland. Since I said that, those who don’t want me to have the operatorship license of the oil block are trying to instigate crisis in order to prove me wrong. But they have failed.”
He, therefore, appealed to the perpetrators of the crisis to have a rethink for the sake of posterity.
On his part, Councillor representing Zaakpor Ward 2 at the Khana Local Government Council, Hon Lucky Logloo assured the people of the area of timely intervention of the Council in ensuring that adequate security personnel were drafted to the area.
He maintained that Khana Local Government will do its best to secure the area while some stakeholders also called on state government to intervene accordingly.