Oil Resumption In Ogoni....PDP Raises Alarm Over Involvement Of Amaechi, Dakuku Peterside, Abe

The Campaign Organisation of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rivers State chapter says it has uncovered a grand plot by certain Ogoni people acting on behalf of Governor Chibuike Amaechi, Dakuku Peterside, the governorship candidate of the State All Progressives Congress, APC and Senator Magnus Abe to further mortgage the future of the Ogonis by contracting its oil wells to another drilling company, Belema Oil.

The new oil company owned by a Riversman of the Kalabari descent programmed to take over all Shell abandoned oil wells is said to have finalized the purchase of Ogoni oil bloc from Shell and will resume production in the devastated Ogoni land soon.

Worried over the development which it said is aimed at disrupting the prevailing peace in Ogoni land, the PDP in a statement from the office of the chairman, Media and Publicity of the PDP Campaign Organization, Barr. Emma Okah, regrets that, the degradation and pollution caused by reckless oil exploration in Ogoni by Shell is yet to be cleansed as recommended in the UNEP report which President Goodluck Jonathan has promised to implement in the first quarter of 2015 yet certain individuals and cronies of the State government are hell-bent on contracting the Ogoni oil to another driller.

Insisting that Ogoni remains unsafe for any oil operation until the polluted Ogoni land is thoroughly cleaned up, the PDP observes that the only reason and concern of those involved in the secret deal with the new exploiters and slave masters is to raise enough funds for Senator Magnus Abe's political campaign and by extension, the APC in the State.

The PDP believes the new plot is in line with Abe's effort in the past to sell the Ogoni people to the Nigerian State when he led a delegation to late Gen. Sani Abacha, then head of State, same time Muhammadu Buhari was Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) chairman immediately the Ogoni environmental activist, and President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) was extra-judicially killed on November 10, 1995.

But more disturbing and frightening the PDP also notes, is the complicity of the current Mosop president, Legborsi Pyagbara who has not hidden his partisanship and sympathy for the APC with whom Belema Oil Company has struck the deal.

The PDP further urges that in the face of the foregoing, it makes no doubt that the legitimate demands and feelings of the majority of Ogoni people who sacrificed their lives to stop the inhuman devastation of their land by Shell have been compromised, moreso, the allegation of a sum of #30 million collected by Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara to support this illegality.

While not standing against the resumption of oil exploration in Ogoni Land, the PDP believes only an all round representative forum of Ogoni people comprising traditional and political leaders, opinion leaders, youth leaders and all several other stakeholders of Ogoni will decide who and which qualified Oil company whether foreign or indigenous, will take over from Shell according to agreed conditions profitable to Ogoni people.

This is in sharp contrast to the current secret deal being championed by certain self-seeking Ogoni people and the APC who according to National Union of Ogoni Students (NUOS) USA have entered into agreement with Belema Oil Company to pay undisclosed sums into their private accounts as compensation for 100yrs, the PDP alleged.

“Whatever may be the answers to these issues raised, one thing is clear. That's Shell remains persona nongrata in Ogoni and has no legal ground to sell out assets to any successor in whatever guise neither do any group of people have the right to mortgage the Ogoni Oil to any driller without the consent through consultations with the Ogoni People, meaning that Ogoni people cannot be ready for any oil production now until the issue of implementation of UNEP report is addressed, the PDP declared.

Signed:
Barr. Emma Okah
Chairman, PDP Campaign Organisation
(Media and Publicity Committee)
Wednesday, February 11, 2015