The Forum Against Niger Delta Exploitation received the news of the planned sale of all Onshore Oil Assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company – SPDC in Nigeria with mixed feelings.
According to the report on Shell’s official website and on several media platforms, the assets are valued at $2.8Billion and are to be sold to Renaissance, a Consortium of four Nigerian firms and one foreign company namely – ND Western, Aradel Energy, First E&P, Waltersmith and Petrolin.
The Forum Against Niger Delta Exploitation led by our Supreme Leader, Henry Okah has been quiet all these years with regards to issues about Niger Delta for obvious reasons, given the incarceration of our leader in faraway South Africa; but now, has been given the mandate by him to speak and act henceforth.
We have carefully reviewed the latest development, as well as Shell’s over six decades period of operation in Nigeria, especially within the Niger Delta territory, and therefore has found it necessary to speak with regards to the issue at hand.
We shall limit our concerns on this regard to the operations of Shell within the Niger Delta territory as that is our primary area of focus.
The Forum Against Niger Delta Exploitation view this latest move by Shell to conclude plans to sell off all of its oil assets in Nigeria including those situated within the Niger Delta territory as rather disturbing, especially having carried out its operation in the region for over six decades without any tangible developmental footprints, despite the huge economic benefits they have enjoyed in cause of their operations, and we condemn it in its entirety.
This move has exposed the depth of inhumanity of these multinationals operating in the Niger Delta region and further shows that Shell has learned nothing despite their conflicts with some of its host communities in the Niger Delta especially in Ogoni land, and recently in three communities of Kula Kingdom in Akuku-Toru LGA of Rivers State.
Belema, Offoin-ama and Ngeje Communities of Kula Kingdom had in 2019, Shutdown and occupied Shell’s Oil Mining License – OML 25 Belema Flow Station, having been fed up with playing hosts to Shell for over 40years without any single infrastructural or human capital development in the communities.
To further aggravate their pain, Shell added salt to injury by concluding plans to divest the oil bloc – OML 25 to its crony to continue on their footsteps; but the host communities rose to the occasion and resisted the move and made case for the divestment of the facility to an indigenous firm whom they felt had their interest at heart.
To this end, the Forum Against Niger Delta Exploitation will resist with its last drop of blood further moves by Shell or any other Oil Multinational to continue the trend of exploiting and enslaving our people or the degradation of our territories without any tangible benefits, infrastructural or human capital development of the Niger Delta people and communities.
We have decided to take our destiny into our hands, as we have been pushed to the wall and are left with no other choice since successive governments and our representatives have proven to careless about the wellbeing of the citizens.
We therefore resolve as follows:
1. That we shall not sit and fold our alms to allow Shell sell off all of its oil assets within the Niger Delta territory to their cronies in the name of a certain consortium of five companies, leaving the host communities as the biggest losers after years of suffering from impact of environmental degradation, unemployment, poor or no infrastructure and others.
2. That Shell should give a first right of refusal to divest some of its assets to indigenous firms whose operational bases are within the cachement areas where the SPDC’s assets are situated in the Niger Delta. Some of the indigenous firms are: Century Energy, Fenog Nigeria Limited, Belema Oil Producing Limited, and any other indigenous firm which have proven themselves fit to earn the trust of their host communities and are qualified to handle these facilities and convert same for the economic benefits and transformation of the areas.
3. That the Niger Delta people will no longer accept being treated as second class citizens where our areas would only be good enough for operational bases for oil exploration activities, degradation of our environments without any tangible benefits to our people, while the corporate headquarters of the firms would be taken out of the shores of the Niger Delta territory.
4. That failure to heed to our demand would be viewed as an invitation to anarchy, as we shall make sure that non of the so-called companies under the consortium that make up ‘Renaissance’ would be allowed entry into any part of the Niger Delta territory to commence oil exploration activities.
5. That this is not an empty threat as the Forum Against Niger Delta Exploitation led by our Supreme Leader, Henry Okah shall match words with action; and this time, shall not operate in the outdated patterns of just destroying oil installations, but shall come after all those behind these evil machinations against the Niger Delta people, be they top hierarchy of Shell Nigeria, government officials or powerful individuals from the local, state and federal government levels.
Be warned, because this time, Shell’s usual divide and rule tactics shall not work. Their lives, that of their families and investments shall no longer be safe upon failure to doing the right thing. A stitch in time saves nine!
Signed:
General Gboloko
Spokesman,
The Forum Against Niger Delta Exploitation.
