TENSION IN THE NIGER DELTA BECAUSE OF SHELL PROJECT, RIVERS/BAYELSA ON A KEG OF GUNPOWDER, GROUPS PETITION ENVIRONMENT MINISTER FOR INTERVENTION

There are strong indications that two sister states in the Niger Delta Region, South-South Nigeria, Rivers and Bayelsa are  'sitting on a keg of gunpowder' planted by the Oil major Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).

 It is common knowledge that,  Shell Nigeria Limited many years ago created the boundary problems between the people of Nembe and Kalabari in today's Rivers and Bayelsa States. That time, during their seismic  exploration and exploitations according to historical records  Shell brazenly without consultations with Oil bearing communities named oil fields and locations after other communities as in the case of Nembe in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State and Kalabari in the Akukutoru Local Government Area of Rivers State.

For that Oluasiri/ Soku Oil fields, Oil Wells and NLNG, for which Shell Nigeria Limited had showed no remorse over the wrongfull naming of Oil fields at Robertkiri in Oluasiri Nembe in the Nembe Local Government Area to Soku in Akukutoru Local Government Area of Rivers State, which had made the boundary area volatile.

It is also on record that before Shell came to the Niger Delta, the people of Nembe and Kalabari were in peace, like a people of the same family, fishing and trading together in their cities and fishing ports. 

But by that dastardly act of wrongful naming of Oil Locations and Fields  Shell planted a seed of  discord amongst the neighbors which resulted to animosity,  violent activities and wars that claimed lives and property of fellow Ijaw, fellow Nigerians in their own lands and territories.  

Shell know too well that Akukutoru Local Government of Rivers State and Nembe Local Government Area and Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa and Abua in Abua Local Government Area of Rivers State.

Impacted communities of Nembe LGA include Bassambiri, Ogbolomabiri Oluasiri, Agrisaba, Mini, Ikensi, Okoroba, and Okoroma communities. Impacted in Ogbia LGA include the people of Abureni communities share a common boundary and there is no way Shell could embark on a project from Akukutoru to Brass without passing through these boundary communities.

This to the eyes of the ordinary man is a move by Shell to cause another problem between Rivers and Bayelsa State, possibly to create another security problem and iminent crisis for Nigerians in the Niger Delta Region.

The 'Albatross' on the neck of the masses especially the people of Nembe and Akukutoru Local Government Areas of the sister states is that Shell has come out with another controversial project called:

"ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT STUDIES FOR THE JK EXPLORATION AND APPRAISAL WELLS PROJECT IN AKUKUTORU AND DEGEMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF RIVERS STATE AND BRASS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BAYELSA STATE DRAFT REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, ABUJA MARCH 2020."

Giving a "BRIEF PROJECT DESCRIPTION OF THE 3RD EE-SHOOT SEISMIC DATA AQUISITIOM IN OIL MINING LEASE (OML) 74 AND 77, SHALLOW OFFSHORE IN NIGER DELTA"

On the location of the project, Shell has this to say:

"...The planned surface coverage area for this seismic survey is about 2,218 square kilometres and span from Akukutoru LGA in Rivers State to Brass LGA in Bayelsa State and will cover HA, HB, HD, ABC, BLKG and JK fields."

Under "PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND DESCRIPTION"  Shell said:

"... A detailed site development program shall be prepared during this stage, taking into consideration the type of fascilities, structures and drilling fluids most suited for the project. Consultations and meetings with stakeholders (regulatory bodies, government  agencies and contractors, coastal communities, etc) are prominent features of this phase."

From this analysis, it is clear that Shell had since conducted or carried out Impact Assessment, met with stakeholders and submitted Report to the Federal Ministry of Environment without involving the Nembe Local Government Area that is between the Akukutoru and Brass Local Government Areas of Rivers and Bayelsa States.

In a protest letter addressed to the Honorable Minister of Environment.dated.12-06-2020  by a body called:

 "SWAMP AREA OIL & GAS PRODUCING COMMUNITIES ASSOCIATION, BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA", led by Deputy Chief I.G . Smith-Ngo and H.H Douglas Onungu wrote:

Osagie Okunbor Shell MD

"PROTEST AGAINST FEDERAL MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT FOR NON-DISPLAY OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) ON THE JK EXPLORATION AND APPRAISAL WELLS PROJECT IN RIVERS AND BAYELSA DRAFT REPORT"

"With profound regard, we the swamp Area and Gas producing communities Association, Bayelsa State, Nigeria ... collaboration with Bayelsa State East Senatorial District Environmental Anti-degradation management Committee, express our dislike about the non-display of the Environmental impact Assessment studies for the JK exploration and appraisal Wells project in Akukutoru Areas of Rivers State and Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. We make demands that you use your good offices to send copies of the documents and extend the display period to more 21 days because the documents are nowhere to be found. The availability of the booklets shall enable the affected communities make comments.

, we make this solemn appeal to come to our aid the provision of the said booklets and extension of the display period."

When a copy of the booklets was received by the State Ministry of Environment from the Federal Ministry of Environment for display, it was discovered that Shell did not include Nembe Local

Government Area as impacted  according to H.H Douglas who raised alarm after going through the report, in an interview with Golden Pen Newspaper in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State Capital, hear him:

" These are the things Shell has been doing over the years to create unnecessary tensions and wars in the Niger Delta, this attitude of  introducing parochial business ideas, sidelining communities and creating divide and rule tactics that were crisis prone to neighbors ."

He called on the Honorable Minister for Environment to call Shell to order for the interest of peace, to involve the Nembe Local Government Area in the project and also to carry out Impact Assessment in the Local Government Area and every other activities done at Akukutoru and Brass Local Government Areas in lieu of the project.

H.H Onungu who expressed concern over the development noted that border communities between Akukutoru and Nembe are now sleeping with one eye open for fear of the unknown.

He used the medium to also call on the Oil Minister, Chief Timipre Sylva to wade in, in order to nip in the bud the looming danger between the two sister communities, Nembe and Kalabari in particular/Rivers and Bayelsa in general.

When our medium visited the State Ministry of Environment, the Permanent Secretary and the H.O.D said the Ministry had received protests from many quarters and petitions against the non exclusion of Nembe in the Impact Assessment Report.

Efforts to reach the Chairman of Nembe Local Government Council, Hon. Alalibo West to comment on the development was unsuccessful unto press time.

Golden Pen reliably gathered that the Nembe Local Government Council had forwarded a petion to the appropriate quarters to correct the anomalies associated to the project. 

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH OF ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRACTIONS IN BAYELSA: POLITICAL FAILURES, LEAVE DIRI AND EWHRUDJAKPO ALONE

The Bayelsa State governorship election held on November 16 2019 across the state ended properly on the.14th of February 2020, when His/Excellency, Senator Douye Diri and His/Excellency, the Deputy Governor of the State, Senator Lawrence Ewhurudjakpo were declared winners following an historic landmark judgement by the Apex Court of the largest African nation, Nigeria, which nullified the victory of the APC and crowned the PDP to govern the state.

This wasn't a secret but a  matter.of public knowledge even to the deaf and the dumb in our country and beyond.
Despite that, our politicians continued to engage the Governor and the Deputy Governor in the theater of Legal battles, which had given a devastating blow to Bayelsa in the area of giving us under development.
That has become the scar on the face of our dear state Bayelsa, a deep scar, a bleeding scar of endless political battles resulting in retrogression, stagnation with an embarrassing and excruciating poverty in the midst of plenty or surplus.
This should be a food for thought to all Bayelsans; especially the political class, because it is the voice of Wisdom telling us that:
"A man, A community, A state or A nation fighting wars cannot embark on development project."
   how come then that, one Mr. Vijah Opuama, a political neophyte, a self acclaimed Governorship Candidate of one unknown and ofcourse a faceless political party in Nigeria, they called Liberation Movement (LM),

What really beat the imagination of the minds of rational thinkers in Bayelsa State, Nigeria and the world are the following questions:

*Where was Vijay Opuama before and during the Bayelsa State Governorship election of November 16, 2020, where was his political party Secretariat in the state capital, Yenagoa and at the eight Local Government Areas, the so called Liberation Movement (LM)?

*Who was the running mate to the controversial self acclaimed Governorship candidate, Vijay Opuama, and who contested with him at the party primary, if there was?

" All the parties that participated at that election took dates with INEC to do  their primaries according to the tradition of the electoral umpire, INEC, what date was given the LM"s party primary in the state how was Mr. Opuama elected, and what was his score to emerge as the.guber candidate amongst who and who in the said 'imaginary party',  'invisible party' or 'ghost party'?

*When the political heavyweights , of Bayelsa of the People Democratic Party (PDP) with the former Governor of the State, His/Excellency, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson and of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) with His/Excellency, Chief Timipre Sylva were on the stage of campaigns and or going through heavy political battles, using all kinds of weapons in their political arsenals to outwit each other, where was Opuama and his controversial 'Liberation Movement, and where were they moving to?

This reminds me of the parable of the Nembe Ijaw people that reads : 'posi faa, eke paga tiri-toi'

(In the absence of the cat, the rat comes on stage to perform.)

That is what Mr. Vijah Opuama and his behind the scene supporters came out to do in the absence of the above scenario.

It was from the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, that it came to public knowledge that Mr. Vijah Opuama and his ill-fated Liberation Movement were at the Tribunal to coupishly sack the Prosperity Government of Their Excellencies, the Executive Governor Senator Douye Diri and Lawrence Ewhurudjakpo the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State with a frivolous allegation about a Youth Corps Certificate the deputy Governor, Ewhrudjakpo submitted to INEC for his election. 

With such a useless, baseless and unnecessary petetion, coupishly arranged and filed at the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja to sack the Bayelsa State was published as follows:

A Governorship candidate of Liberation Movement (LP) in the last election in Bayelsa State, Vijah Opuama has approached the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja seeking the disqualification of the Deputy Governor, Mr. Lawrence Ewhurudjakpo..."

This is wicked, very wicked and indeed devilsh. What did Ewhurudjakpo do to Vijah and those behind him that they want his disqualification now that the election matters have ended.

Playing the war drums at the time of peace is an act of abomination before God, and unacceptable to morality.

And as if that wasn't enough they went further and lied against the Chief of Staff Government House, Chief Benson Agadaga, a man of integrity in an ill-fated voice recording that he had a discussion with that unknown Vijah Opuama appealing to him for cooperation because of the said baseless Tribunal matter.

Though it was my cardinal interest to be quiet over many things, as these things keep calling my attention, then I remembered what that great Bonny born political sage, Chief Harold Dapa Biriye of blessed memory said many years ago that:

" If God give you power to defend the  and someone is being oppressed