Seven communities in the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Estuary Area (EA) in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State are protesting to demand their autonomy in the composition of cluster communities under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, Host Community Development Trust (HCDT).
The communities who took the protest to the EA oilfields off the Atlantic coastline in several speedboats chanting solidarity songs have spent eight days at the facility saying that appeals to vacate the facility have been received and assured that they will remain peaceful in a bid to keep vigil at the site with the military.
Speaking on behalf of the protesting communities which include Bisangbene, Amatu 1, Amatu 2, Letugbene, Orobiri, Ogbintu, and Azamabiri, the chairman of Bisangbene community, Mr Timothy Geregere, said they would not hesitate to shut down the company’s operations if their demand was further ignored.
According to the community leader, initially, four clans comprising 12 communities operated the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) before the advent of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021, but only seven communities agreed to work together and that any attempt to include any other community would be resisted.
He explained that the separation is necessary because there are about twelve communities in the EA and the twelve communities cannot work together because when the PIA came SPDC indicated an intention to merge the different clusters across the four clans but the seven communities rejected the proposal and insisted on having a separate trust.
He listed the 12 communities as Amatu 1, Amatu 2, Bisangbene, Letugbene, Bilabiri 1, Bilabiri 2, Ikeni, Izetu, Orobiri, Azamagbene, Agge and Ogbintu, explaining further that however, Bisangbene, Amatu 1, Amatu 11, Letugbene, Orobiri, Ogbintu and Azamabiri agreed to work together when the proposal was raised.
They vowed to occupy the facility until the oil firm reverts the composition of the EA Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) to seven in reflection of the cultural affinity of the people, maintaining that plots by SPDC to foist five other communities in the HCDT are would be resisted.
Mr. Geregere, while addressing newsmen on behalf of the aggrieved host communities regretted that they were compelled to resort to a peaceful protest haven made efforts to no avail to resolve the dispute on the negotiating table.
The community leader said that it was regrettable that in spite of making the position of the seven settlements clear in several letters to the company, SPDC ignored them.
Geregere said: “We have been compelled to go this far by mobilising the community to draw the attention of all stakeholders to our simple demand, we want to be treated separately in the EA oil field and we have written several letters to SPDC.
“We have come here to draw attention to the delay tactics of foisting ‘strange bedfellows’ together, which is a grand plan to retard development.
“We will not allow divide and rule in our communities, so we are telling the world that we should be allowed to operate a separate trust, we will remain here until our demand is met, and earnestly hope they will not push us to shut down the facility,” he said.
When contacted for reaction, Mr Michael Adande, Spokesperson for SPDC said: “The EA Host Communities Development Trust is a subject of intra-communal litigation, the outcome of which is being awaited before any further steps by the SPDC.”
ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then