_ …Call on Wike to return $300m NNPC compensation
Mkpoikana Udoma Port Harcourt — The National Youth Council of Ogoni People, NYCOP, is demanding a 45 percent equity in the operations of the Oil Mining Lease, OML, 11 Ogoni oil fields, ahead of any planned resumption of exploration activities on the fields.
Ogoniland plays host to majority of oil fields in OML 11, which stretches from Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State to Asa-Ndoki in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State, down to Eleme, Tai, Khana, Gokana and Bonny Local Government Areas in Rivers State. The lease is dotted with several marginal fields.
Shell Nigeria pulled out of the Ogoni part of OML 11 in 1993 and later lost the operating license for the lease in 2021 through a court judgement adjudicated in several courts, amid controversy and bitter wranglings between it and the Ogoni.
31 years after Shell left Ogoniland, NYCOP, the apex Ogoni youth body, said the people of Ogoni were ready for resumption of oil and gas activities in the area.
President of NYCOP, Mr Barinuazor Emmanuel, said 45 percent stake should be kept aside for the people by the NNPC Ltd in its plans to resume activities in the oilfields.
Emmanuel, who was speaking at the the 2024 commemoration of Ogoni Day in Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoniland, urged NNPC Ltd to prevail on former governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike, to return the $300 million allegedly released by the nation’s oil company as compensation to the people of Ogoni.
He said: “We are ready for economic resumption in Ogoni. We are asking for 45 percent equity in Ogoni oil. So, any thing the government is doing, 45 percent equity in Ogoni oil is what we are asking for.
“The $300 million, supposedly released by NNPC Ltd, and cornered by the past governor, should be given to us, otherwise, NNPCL should not cross our boundary.”
