Opu-Nembe community in Nembe-Bassambiri, Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa and host to Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Limited have issued a quit notice to the company.
They made the call at a press conference on Saturday after a protest march where the Traditional Rulers and Chiefs wore black to publicize “the death and final burial” of Aiteo.
The leaders accused the firm of economic strangulation, ecological destruction, contract racketeering and corporate wickedness.
Oriango Oruwari, Chairman of the Council of Chiefs, said effective November 14, Aiteo is no longer welcome in their domain.
He decried several oil spills, some of which the National Oil Spill Detection & Response Agency (NOSDRA) is investigating after petitions.
Oruwari regretted that the petroleum hydrocarbon remains uncleared and unremediated since 2019.
“The mere remnants of our ecological resources and natural livelihoods may completely vanish during the remaining two and half years of President Muhammdu Buhari’s tenure in office, all thanks to Aiteo.
“We declare that the operational license of OML 29 held by Aiteo having expired on the 30th June, 2019, notwithstanding the illegal secretive renewal by the then Minister Ibe Kachikwu, should be relinquished.”
The chairman said the purported renewal of the lease is invalid, and as such, Aiteo was a trespasser, persona non grata in Opu-Nembe and will not be allowed to operate henceforth.
The communities demanded that the federal government-owned Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) take over the operations of OML 29, pending when “a new, competent and community-friendly operator takes over”.
An Aiteo spokesman told NAN he was not authorized to speak on the development and disclosed that the company is working on a response to the issues raised by the community.
from dailypost
Hian!
ReplyDeleteAll I see here is a sponsored act by some interested individuals. The community should say truly what their grievances and motives are.
ReplyDeletePlease don't comment on a subject you know nothing about. ..
DeleteSo what do you know about it???
DeleteThe livelihood of many in the community has been destroyed by the oil spills. If that is not of concern to you, you are wicked and for someone who has benefited from the kindness of strangers, that is unfortunate. This is a company that can pay for the clean up of that area and take responsibility for their mistake. Not everyone is comfortable going cap in hand on the internet and living off of handouts. Many are content doing jobs they are doing now without having to twale one big man that is destroying the future of their children.
DeleteUnder Obama, you had the BP oil spills and the companies involved paid for the clean up. They did so good a job after apologizing profusely that Obama and his younger daughter swam in the same waters to show that it was now safe. You don't have to destroy an entire community and impoverish thousands simply for dollars. There are many billionaires giving the same money away. Abiola was the talk of the town but where is he or his wealth today?
If Dangote sets up a factory in your hometown and destroyed it so much that people could no longer farm, feed themselves or are coming down with all sorts of pulmonary diseases and cancers we won't hear the last of ipob propaganda on this blog but here you are, dismissing the humanity of this entire community. Is this not the same thing Arthur Eze and Ned Nwoko are doing to their own people? Is it not interesting that the wickedness we ignore being done to others is what is needed out to us? The world is round. You cannot sow the wind and not reap the whirlwind.
When you see the world only through tribal lens, you don't see people. If you love money, you will use people but if you love people, you would use money. Stop thinking that because someone from your tribe is making money from wickedness, your own bank account would swell. The beggars you ignored on your way to work are closer relatives of dangote and buhari than you are.
Aiteo can look around them and see themselves as there for a purpose and for good. It would cost them nothing to establish a number of primary and secondary schools and pay the staff. They can set up skills acquisition centres and have direct relationship with the age groups in the town. No company is perfect but for the margin of profit they make, they can make such a difference in that town after cleaning it up that these same people would have been begging the FG and rioting if their license wasn't renewed. If they are skeptical, they can bypass the chieftaincy system and deal with the residents and their ndi egba directly. In a riverine area, how much would it cost to construct the kind of bare-boned bridges Desmond Elliot launched in Lagos?
Divorce yourself from the mentality of poverty. You don't live on your hometown. If it was not conducive, thanks to the natives, would you become a permanent fixture there? Of they kidnapped you once a month and burneed your shop out of spite, would you make profit? If Nigeria should divide, what stops the south from dividing? In successful countries like UAE, South Korea, Qatar, Japan and Germany, non natives are taxed far higher than natives and even have to include them as partners in their businesses to get registered but you want to benefit from a place and dismiss the pains of those who are from there. What a Tinubu way to think.
But majority of these oil exploration companies do business outside Nigeria and claims of environmental degradation and other allegations are not heard inform of complaints from the host countries. Does that mean much is expected from them here when much should be expected from them outside Nigeria? Or they take host communities here for granted or familiarity or greed from the host communities?
ReplyDeleteWe read this week this same Aiteo is investing $1B in mining in an African country. What then is happening?
Baltika you asked valid questions but na the answers be problem. Anyway it's well.
DeleteThe most Complex B