Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Pro-Ijaw group under the aegis of Coalition of Ijaw Women Voices, has warned the indigenous conglomerate, Renaissance, against buying up Shell’s onshore assets without the full participation of Ijaw people, warning that it will be a wasteful investment.
The group who vowed to resist the agreement by federal government to sell off Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, said the people in whose communities, creeks and mangroves the assets are domiciled must have first right of refusal and be allowed to express a desire to participate and to be included in the options of purchase and ownership.
National Coordinator of the group, Ms. Annkio Briggs, while briefing newsmen in Port Harcourt, warned the consortium and every other potential interest that buying any of Shell’s assets was tantamount to buying the agitation and resistance of the Niger Delta people, particularly the Ijaw nation.
Briggs who called on the federal government, the Attorney General of the Federation, members of the National Assembly from the Niger Delta, South South state governors on the seemingly concluded plans to sell off Shell onshore assets in the region, cautioned that any attempt to carry out the act without consulting the people will be term as dubious, deplorable and unaccepted.
The Ijaw women in the communique while demanding to be consulted as part of the negotiation and decisions to sell any oil and gas assets in Ijaw territory, also demanded to know who will be held responsible for the remediation, reparation and compensation for the devastations from oil exploration in Ijaw territory.
“The attempt to sell off these vital assets domiciled in the Niger Delta and particularly in Ijaw territory is unacceptable and will be resisted. Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, ENI etc. and the Federal Government of Nigeria remain responsible for the ecological genocide of the Niger Delta.
“The attempt to casually sell off assets in this world-recognised devastated region is, to say the least dubious, deplorable, and unacceptable.
We call on the consortium and all other oil and gas interests to note that, in buying any of these assets they are buying the agitation and resistance of our people.
“The International Oil Companies and the Federal Government of Nigeria continue to test our resolve for justice, equity and freedom. This latest attempt to sell off the onshore assets in our territory is yet another attempt to enslave, continue to impoverish our people and steal the future of our children.
“We call on the Federal Government of Nigeria, the International Oil Companies, the so-called Renaissance African Energy and other oil and gas interests to be transparent and accountable in their unacceptable plots to sell off the assets in our Indigenous lands.
“We hold the Federal Government of Nigeria, the International Oil Companies, the Ministers of Petroleum, Oil and Gas, capable and responsible for the over 70 years of environmental destruction, devastations, and genocide through the reckless oil and gas exploration and exploitation of crude oil and gas flaring.
“Recently the Federal Government of Nigeria relocated the headquarters of FAAN to Lagos, stating that Lagos is the aviation hub of the country, in addition, some key departments of the CBN have also been moved to Lagos again citing Lagos as the economic hub of the country. We hereby renew our decades-old calls to relocate all oil and gas companies to the Niger Delta region where the oil and gas resources and facilities are domiciled.
“It is necessary to remind the Federal Government of Nigeria and the oil and gas companies that Ijaw people will not continue to carry Nigeria on our backs. Henceforth we will reappraise our continued stay within a country that takes everything from us.
“Finally, it will be a wasteful investment for any consortium or similar interests in and out of Nigeria to invest in any venture to procure any on-shore assets in Ijaw territory without the full participation of the Ijaw People,” the group said.
