· Pleads with communities not to shut down oil operations
The Delta State Government
through the office of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice has
waded into the rift between Host Communities in OML 34 and the Nigerian
Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) over alleged refusal to comply with terms of
the Project Global Memorandum of Understanding for the Domestic Gas Project and
the Steady State Global Memorandum of Understanding by the Oil company.
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| Governor Okowa |
The Cluster Development Boards
had petitioned the Attorney-General of the State accusing NPDC of failing to
respect the terms of the Agreements, threatening to shut down the
operations of the Company in the affected communities if urgent and immediate
steps were not taken to resolve the face off.
The Attorney-General and
Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Peter Mrakpor who presided over the mediation
meeting between the Cluster Development Boards of the various communities that
make up OML 34 and representatives of the multi-national oil giant, NPDC,
disclosed that he was acting on the instruction of the Delta State
Governor, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to resolve all community/oil coy related
disputes. He said the move was aimed at protecting the rights of the people as
well as to create the enabling environment for investors to do business in line
with the ease of doing business objective of the state government.
Mr. Mrakpor who succeeded in
restoring peaceful community relations between the hitherto disputants told all
parties involved to respect terms of all agreements reached even as he
reiterated government decision that all MoU negotiations and reviews involving
Host Communities and companies operating in their domain must be driven by the
Ministry of Justice, adding that the days when terms of agreements were
violated with impunity were long since gone. He stated further that the
Ministry of Justice will henceforth enforce the compliance all such agreements
through the Court system.
He charged the Management of NPDC
to improve on its community relations and ensure that funds meant for the
Communities for developmental purposes are released without further delay. He
urged the Communities to be calm and not to resort to self-help or shutting
down of oil facilities.
Earlier, Chief Nuwawan Oghenero
Aladey who spoke on behalf of the Clusters while thanking the Delta
Attorney-General for the peace initiative which he described as first of its
kind lamented the poor attitude of NPDC towards the Communities. He accused the
company of denying youths in the area employments, refusal to pay courtesy
visits to traditional rulers and Community Leaders in the area, non-payment of
backlogs of Peace awards and refusal to release project funds as contained in
the signed MoU to the communities.
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