Emma Amaize
12 January 2008
(Page 2 of 3)
Noting that the appointment of a member of the commission had nothing to do with political leanings or militant capacity, it said from all indications, the governor had picked and chosen the Ogulagha people, as his friend, so, the DESOPADEC the law, which, says that the member shall be appointed from the community with the highest production quantum does not matter any more.
As far as they are concerned, the governor by his action "wants to force it down our throat that the Ogulagha community is the highest oil producing community in the whole of Delta South Senatorial district and sole owners of all the items in OML 45 to the detriment of the Odimodi people in spite of their failure in court".
Uduaghan acted in good faith
A government source said the governor has the facts on the oil producing communities in the state and knows which of the communities in Burutu local government is the highest in oil production. He asserted, "There is no bias in the action that state government took in swearing-in Mr. Temewei and there is no need calling him names for doing the right thing. It is the same people that will condemn him if he had done otherwise".
Chairman of Delta State House of Assembly Committee on Information, Hon. Abel Oshevire told Saturday Vanguard that the appointment of Mr. Temewei was done by the executive arm of the government and what the lawmakers did was to check and ensure that he was qualified for the job.
Ogulagha position, by Paramount Ruler, Timiyan
Paramount Ruler of Ogulagha kingdom, His Royal Majesty, Captain Joseph Timiyan told Saturday Vanguard when contacted, "To start with, Odimodi is of Iduwini clan and Ogulagha community is of Ogulagha kingdom. These are two different things and Ogulagha and Odimodi have no relationship in any form. The founder of Ogulagha kingdom is Ogula, he is a direct son of Ijaw and Iduwini, I do not know whether they are great, great grandson of Ijaw but I think they speak Ijaw language. What I am telling you is that we don't have any relationship. That is the truth of the matter.
And for one to claim ownership to flow station or Terminal depends on when either Shell BP or today, SPDC, who they met there and who is the right owner of the place. Let me tell you, let me go back to Odimodi, the present Odimodi, which, you told me that you visited is not even Odimodi is supposed to be, that is even an Ogulagha land. Just that they want to cause problem with the Ogulagha people, which was why they shifted to that present position.
The Forcados Terminal you see, if you get there, there is no difference between the Terminal and the Ogulagha community. Where the Terminal is situated is where the Ogulagha community was before it was relocated for the Terminal. That is why you see it is only the fence that demarcates the community and the Terminal and I know you can see that with your eyes. The Terminal was acquired from Ogulagha community, we have seven quarters and they signed for the acquisition papers and Odimodi's name is not there.
Odimodi is not there, it is not known. Let me still go back, they at times, call Beniboye flow station, the Agip flow station, you see, there are wrong naming in all these processes, that does not mean that Beniboye flow station belong to Odimodi. Beniboye flow station is situated in a community in Ogulagha. So Beniboye flow station is not even in Beniboye, it is in Oguguru in Ogulagha community.
That is the simple truth. And these Shell, Agip, Chevron facilities are in Ogulagha kingdom and owned by the Ogulagha people, exclusive of any other kingdom or community. Odimodis are known as violent people, they are known as oppressors, they have been doing this for a very long time, they oppress people, they intimidate people, and they at times go far away to fight our tenants.
Killing is part of Odimodi, People talk about militants today, and they have been in the militancy business for a long time. So if Odimodi man told you that they have one well head or one flow station, it is pure lie. If they have, let them present those papers. The 2002 crisis between Odimodi and Ogulagha, Chief Clark, who is an Ijaw national leader, intervened and we sat down- we gave our version of the story and they also gave their own.
It is stated clearly in the agreement, they signed, Odimodi people signed and Ogulagha signed. It is specifically written, even the Ijaw leader who presided, knew that Odimodi has no hand in the SPDC Terminal. Part of the resolutions was that Odimodi could seek for jobs and other things in the area, but, should do so without the claim to ownership of land.
But Odimodi people said that Ogulagha falsely presented itself as sole owner and that when it went to court, the Forcados Terminal was properly acquired by the SPDC in 1971 from the two communities?
It is still there in the agreement that was signed. To make peace, according to Chief Clark, out of the rental dues coming, we should give them one third; the Ogulagha community should have two third. Apart from that, they can go there and seek for job like any other person in this country, but, they should not tie it to ownership of land because that place is not owned by Odimodi. We were told to give them one third because they are our neighbours but they are now claiming that because of the one third given to them, they are part owners, it is wrong.Chief Clark is a lawyer; he knows what he was doing when they wrote that agreement, which was why he stated that it is not tied to ownership of land.
Do the Odimodi get that one third up till now when the money comes?
Of course, they get it, you see, agreement is agreement. We give them for peace because we know that if we don't give them, they will come and kill us. We don't want to die, we know them.
The atmosphere in Odimodi was clear that there is a cold war between the people and Ogulagha, what is the state of things between you and them from your own perspective?
For me, I feel that there is a good rapport. The Odimodi community claim Ogulagha as their township, as their Warri. If not for some of these SPDC staff that cannot do without girls, they caused all these, at times, I blame Shell, they caused this problem because Odimodi right from the beginning has beautiful girls and that was why some Shell staff put a link road to Odimodi. They don't have anything to do in Odimodi.
That road had nothing to do with either Shell or the Ogulagha person but just because they want to drive down there to carry girls, they now put that road and that gave privilege to Odimodi people to say that they are also part-owners. From that road, they now say ah, this thing is here, let's be going there to seek for job, it was seeking of job that turned to ownership of land.
Another boiling issue between Ogulagha and Odimodi is the appointment of Mr. Temewei into the DESOPADEC Board, Odimodi said they were robbed because they are the highest oil producing community in Burutu, and you, the royal father, arm-twisted the governor to appoint your subject?
In all circumstances, the truth must prevail. I have no power on my own to arm-twist the governor or the government to do what is not right. I don't have that power. To be frank and sincere, you know the law guiding the DESOPADEC and it says production quantum, Let me even go back to the Terminal issue, that place is just a storage facility, it does not produce one barrel of oil, its only gathering of crude oil that comes from Escravos, Otu-Jeremi, from all over this state and there, there is no well head there. What the Governor looked into and what we, the Ogulagha people looked into, is the law guiding the DESOPADEC.
Get me clearly, we have a lot of flow stations, not just the Terminal, Ogulagha is made up of six major oil bearing communities, go to the SPDC and confirm, we have one from Agip, which, is Oguguru, and the ones scattered around the kingdom. So if you look very well, Agip oil flow stations cover seven or eight communities in the kingdom.
We have the South Bank flow station, the North Bank flow station and others, all in Ogulagha kingdom. The governor knows that Ogulagha community has the highest production figure in Burutu local government area. In fact, if Odimodi man tells you that they are the highest oil producing in this area tell him that he does not know what he is saying, in deed; they don't know what they are doing. This is not militant issue, this is real.
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THIS IS A BIG HAZERD AND NOTHING THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO TO REPLACE THIS CULTURE.