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Nigeria: Oil Splits Two Ijaw Communities
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Vanguard (Lagos)
12 January 2008
Posted to the web 12 January 2008
Emma Amaize
In the beginning prior to the sixties, the people of Odimodi and Ogulagha communities, both oil-rich Ijaw towns in Burutu local government area of Delta state banqueted together. Their young men and women walked down the aisle, they shared the same cultural heritage and time-honored values.
That was before the coming of oil, but, since 1968, 40 years to be specific, when oil companies, starting with the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) stepped into their shores with the establishment of the Forcados Terminal and other facilities, as well as the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) with its flow station and other installations, the five-letter word, peace, had fled from the two communities. It has been claims and counter claims, squabbles, hostilities and bloodshed. For Odimodi, which, in Ijaw language, means pond of fishes, it has been nothing but pond of troubles.
The situation is so terrible that the Iduwini Coalition Forces (ICF), a group of militants, last Sunday night, bombed the Beniboye flow station, owned by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and a Water Disposal Pipeline, belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), the first attack by any militant group on oil facilities in the state in the new year.
Besides, the group also threatened to continue the bombing on sea and land, until the NAOC and SPDC, which, they also accused of polluting their areas, were pursued out of their domain. The truth, however, is that Odimodi and Ogulagha communities are embroiled in a vinegary war that could engulf the state if not quickly nipped in the bud.
For sure, Uduaghan did not create the jealousy and opposition between the two communities. He inherited the troubles as the Governor and father of the state.
2001 Mayhem
The deep-seated animosity between the two communities exploded in 2001, two years after the former governor, Chief James Ibori assumed office. Hundreds of persons perished in that bloody war while property estimated at millions of naira were lost. Actually, the first fracas between both communities was in 1995 when some Odimodi youths were alleged to have been prevented from being employed in the then ongoing Forcados Terminal Integration Project (FTIP) by the Ogulagha community.
The then Area Commander of Police in Warri, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) N. Egbochukwu intervened in the matter. That was in April and in May, that same year, the Odimodi community took men of the Nigeria Police to Beniboye community to arrest some persons and the two policemen, Inspector H. Azosibe and Corporal S. Anigegi were abducted and their guns seized.
The policemen were later produced. The Chief Clark-led panel of Izon (Ijaw) leaders, which, was set up by the state government to resolve the communal crisis between the two communities said in its report: "We also observed that the SPDC and other prospecting and servicing companies use divide and rule tactics to make the Ogulagha and Odimodi people struggle and fight among themselves.
We observed that such apparent lapses on the part of SPDC and its servicing companies, especially some of the staff have helped to fan the embers of suspicion, distrust and hatred among the two sister communities that actually and precipitated this crisis".
"The panel also found out that apart from the hundreds of lives that were lost, properties worth millions of naira were also destroyed. Many of the affected people are still receiving treatment in various private and government hospitals. While many others have been displaced and have neither home nor properties, they need serious and urgent assistance from government, Shell and other agencies", it said.
Our case, by Odimodi people
Spokesman of the Odimodi community, Barrister Sam Ikporukpo who briefed newsmen said: "The neglect and pain of the Niger-Delta communities is no longer news, what is news now is the gang up by the government, the oil companies and the Ogulagha community to shackle Odimodi community and surgically excise our status as an oil bearing community. In Odimodi, we play host to the SPDC and the NAOC. These two companies operate in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 45, 79 and 62 respectively within the Odimodi territory.
He listed the Forcados Terminal, Forcados South Bank flow station, Forcados Estuary flow station and SPDC's 41 oil well clusters in its OML 45 as being the oil facilities in the northern western boundary of Odimodi, the Beniboye flow station, Beniboye flow line, Beniboye offshore oil well clusters, SPDC Crude Loading Platform (CLP), NAOC, Benmogbene oil well location, as the oil facilities in its north eastern and western (Bight of Benin) and southern eastern boundaries, among others.
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"The Ogulagha community", it alleged, has falsely and at all times, appropriated to themselves the ownership of all the items listed within SPDC OML 45. This, the Ogulagha community has brazenly done in several of their letters and publications", it asserted, citing their letter of 11 July, 2007 to the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and other documents.
THIS IS A BIG HAZERD AND NOTHING THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO TO REPLACE THIS CULTURE.
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