Emma Amaize
12 January 2008
(Page 3 of 3)
Go to Shell, Agip and Chevron if you want to get the facts, not them sitting down in their village and saying we own this, we own that. The governor has done the right thing by swearing in Mr. Francis Temewei as the commissioner representing the Ijaws of Burutu local government and if the government behaves in this way, peace will reign in the state and in Nigeria . It is only when you are afraid of people and do the wrong thing instead of the right thing that problem will continue.
Are you in touch with your counterpart, the royal father of Odimodi community in trying to find a peaceful settlement of this crisis?
Odimodi is not a kingdom. As I earlier told you, it is under Iduwini kingdom and the royal father of Iduwini kingdom is a personal friend, we speak, we interact, we play together, we don't have problem. He also knows the truth. That the Odimodi community likes to arm-twist the Ogulagha people, even the little they are having, they are benefiting, we just said let us just give them and let them leave us in peace, we know that poverty causes a lot of things.
That is why we gave them that one third, not tied to ownership of land, and they should know that. This is 2002 matter I am talking about, it is not 1930s and it is not intelligence report. They read the memorandum by the Clark panel before they signed, so what are they talking, are they now waking up from sleep or they want to cause another problem.
Clark panel MoU
The Chief Clark panel Memorandum of Understanding between the Ogulagha and Odimodi communities, dated 24 April, 2002, by representatives of both communities acknowledged that the Shell -BP, now SPDC acquired 1,340 acres from Ogulagha community for the construction of Shell Terminal project and that by an agreement entered into by the Ogulagha and Odimodi communities in 1970, it resolved that rentals be shared in the ration of 75 per cent to Ogulagha community and 25 per cent to Odimodi community in order to discontinue the cases in court between the two communities, it was, therefore, resolved thus: "All rental benefits, employment opportunities and contracts that falls within the land originally acquired from Ogulaghan community in May 1968 by Shell BP for the Forcados Terminal Project shall be shared in the ratio of 75 per cent to Ogulagha community and 25 per cent to Odimodi community respectively.
It was also resolved that outside the agreed ratio mentioned in paragraph one above, the Odimodi community like any other community should also be free to seek for any other job in the area, but must do so without the claim to ownership of land; and no community shall use force or intimidation on the other or any employer of labour or contractor or company.
"The Ogulagha community shall withdraw its earlier letter stopping payment of rentals in the Shell acquired land and also such outstanding accruals collected from Shell Petroleum Development Company and shared between the two communities in line with the ratio stated above", the MoU stated.
Counter claim
Odimodi, however, said that it was only when it went to the court in 1969 to challenge the false claim by Ogulagha on sole ownership of the Forcados Terminal that the Ogulagha people sought to settle the matter of out of court, consequent upon which the Terminal was reacquired from the two communities, and from then on, they made joint demands for rent payments from the SPDC.
It showed copy of letter, dated March 12, 1976, by representatives of the two communities acknowledging receipt of rental payment from Shell as owners of the 337.2 hectares of dry land, 93.32 hectares of seasonal swamp, 44.00 hectares of permanent fresh water swamp and 4.0 hectares of sandy beach acquired from the communities for the Forcados Terminal , saying that this was as far back before the Clark panel report and the Ogulagha people cannot wake up today to say that the Odimodi were not co-owners of Forcados Terminal or that they were just accommodating them as neighbours.
They also stated that for the avoidance of doubt that Ogulagha had no claim to any oil facility in Beniboye and also attached some court judgment, which named Odimodi as owners of Beniboye.
Unfinished business with Agip
For the oil companies, Odimodi accused the NAOC of not only being a serial and deliberate polluter, but, illegally and deliberately joining forces with Ogulagha to deny it of its host rights on its Beniboye facilities. "NAOC's environmental standard in the Beniboye area is an affront on our statute books on environmental law.
On the last count, we have eight unresolved oil spill from the NAOC Beniboye flow lines. NAOC has disregarded the Delta State House of Assembly resolutions of 27 September, 2004 to clean up and remediate all polluted areas and pay fair and adequate compensation to the Odimodi people.
As if to add salt to injury, NAOC criminally and intentionally excluded the Odimodi community, land owners of Beniboye from its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its Beniboye offshore wells in January 2001 in contravention of the EIA Decree, No. 86 of 1992, because in collusion with the Ogulagha community, NAOC has refused to accredit us with its offshore oil well location", it said.
On 13 November, 2007 , there was another oil spill from the NAOC's Beniboye flow line and the Odimodi community reported to the relevant authorities. "But rather than boom the spill site and prevent further spill from spreading, the NAOC hired Atlantic Marines Limited to pass through Ogulagha community for a pretentious integrity test of their pipelines in order to tamper with the evidence of the spill.
On a tip off, the community was on site to see the NAOC contractor and the employed Ogulagha youths working on the spill site. This enraged Odimodi community, which, seized their work tools and asked them to follow due process. Ogulagha threatened war", said the spokesman, Ikporuokpo.
That cat and mouse relationship between Odimodi and the NAOC before the company's pipeline was bombed, last Sunday, but Saturday Vanguard gathered that the NAOC, which is based in Port-Harcourt has reached out to some leaders of Odimodi, particularly, as the community had issued it a quit notice to discuss the way forward. But it was not clear whether the community has honoured the invitation, as the tension was still high.
SPDC trunk-line causes tremor in our community
For the SPDC, the community said the company's Trans Ramos trunk-line was causing earth tremor in its domain whenever crude oil was pumped through it. It also complained of its Water Disposal Pipeline, which, it said was polluting its environment.
The SPDC denied the charge even though the Ministry of Environment, Asaba confirmed that the waste water from the pipeline was damaging the vegetation. The company in a letter to the community said, "Contrary to the assertions in your letter, crude oil and effluent water from our Forcados Terminal are handled in line with statutory environmental protection requirements and disposed off via approved environmentally safe methods.
But since the last Sunday bombing incident, the SPDC has initiated a fresh process to satisfy the community that the waste water was not toxic. A community source said that the company contacted some of its leaders to discuss the issues and carry out inspection. Saturday Vanguard also learnt that the Federal Ministry of Environment had ordered investigation into the allegations raised by the community against the oil companies.
If the Clark panel MoU signed by communities to live as brothers and sisters were being religiously followed, the present tension between the two communities would not have arisen or the crisis would have been nipped in the bud. But the truth is that the agreement has been breached by both communities.
For instance, both communities agreed to put in place a 10-member committee with five members representing each of the communities "to always dialogue, treat, negotiate and resolve all disputes and discuss matters of mutual benefits to both communities".
The committee is to meet quarterly and whenever the need arose and any matter, which it was unable to resolve, should be immediately referred to the Izon leadership under Chief Clark for prompt resolution in order to avoid explosive situations between the two communities, but, since 2002 when the agreement was signed, it has been no love lost between them.
Part of the agreement is that no community shall use force or intimidation on the other or any employer of labour or contractor or company. Since then, the communities have been intimidating one another and using force on the oil companies and contractors to drive home their points. The only thing that has not happened between them since the 2001 fratricidal war is that they have not resorted to killing themselves and burning their property.
Before and even after he assumed office, last year, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State was known to have prayed to God at different churches to grant him the wisdom, which, He granted the biblical Solomon to rule the state. So far, God has been compassionate to him, and before year 2007 eclipsed, he, out of some nifty political maneuverings, contained the blitzkriegs that were fired at him by the Delta Elders and Leaders Forum, led by the elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark.
But barely two weeks into the new year, the governor who prides himself as a peacemaker seriously needs God's wisdom to contain the bad blood between the two oil-rich Ijaw communities, one of which had pointedly accused him, correctly or incorrectly, of stoking the up-to-the-minute brouhaha with the appointment of an indigene of an Ogulagha man, Mr. Temewei, as a Commissioner, representing the Ijaws of Burutu local government area on the board of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC).
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THIS IS A BIG HAZERD AND NOTHING THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO TO REPLACE THIS CULTURE.