Communities hosting the disputed Oil Mining lease OML 25 in Kula, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State have denied agreeing to the re-open the facility which was shut over two years ago by the community’s women.
Stakeholders from the three host communities of Belema, Ofoin-Ama and Ngeje, in a statement in Port Harcourt during the weekend denied signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to end the dispute surrounding the facility.
Recall that a statement by Governor Nyesom Wike’s special assistant on new media, simoen Nwakudu, said that the OML-25 dispute had been addressed and the host communities agreed to sign a MoU with Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, to end the crisis which has cost the federal government an estimated 700 billion in revenue.
But the stakeholders in the statement signed by representatives of the three communities – King Bourdillon Allen Ekine, Amanyanabo of Opukula (Old Shipping); Chief-elect Mpakaboari Welsch, Chief-elect Oputuboye Walter and Prince Opunabo Ekine, Alabo Fiala Okoye-Davies, Sibia Aaron Sukubo (Offo XIII), Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, Spokesman PANDEF, Chief Ibiosia Nath-Sukubo, Amb. Sukubo Sara-Igbe Sukubo, Chief Ibinabo Daniel Kiliya and Chief Wapakaboari A. Gaga, dissociated themselves from the agreement, adding that they were not invited to the meeting where the purported agreement was reached.
They said that SPDC will never return to their communities again, adding that they would rather divest the facility to their preferred investor.
According to them: “We insist that we do not want SPDC any more in our land. We will continue to occupy the oil facility peacefully until our demands are met. Let the Rivers State government and Shell come with their brute force, we are ready to die for this cause.
“We remain resolute in our demands for the divestment of OML25 by SPDC, taking into cognisance the right-of-first-refusal of the host communities.”
“We are constrained to notify the public of the dangerous steps taken by officials of the Rivers State government in resolving the impasse surrounding the shutdown of OML25.
“We have it on good authority that SPDC is engaging in unwholesome and fraudulent practices with government officials to do its bidding on the matter in flagrant disregard to due process, probity, fairness and equity.
“We have been inundated with credible information that a top government official has received $5 million bribe from Shell, on behalf of the government, to undermine due process on this matter, all in a bid to forcefully re-open the facility.”
