Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has directed all parties in the dispute relating to Oil Mining License (OML) 25 to within 7 days resolve all issues and reopen the oil facility.
He also directed the Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Dr. Tammy Danagogo, to convene a meeting of all key stakeholders for the host communities to outline their grievances to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), and for the company to address such developments.
He spoke at a meeting with the management of the SPDC, Belemaoil Limited, host community leaders and Security Service Commanders at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Friday.
Traditional rulers, elected leaders, Youth leaders and Chairmen of Community Development Committees from Kula, Belema, Offoin-Ama, Opu-Kula and Ibiame of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area attended the meeting.
Wike said he called the meeting because the closure of OML 25 is negatively affecting Federal, State and Local Government funds.
“OML 25 has been shut down for one reason or the other. Some persons in the community are hauling insults at me.
No matter the insult, nothing will make me not to perform my duty to the area. The Federal government, the State government and the Local government are losing funds with the continued closure of the OML 25.
If Shell is behaving wrongly, tell them and if Belemaoil is behaving wrongly, tell them. It is wrong for anyone to say that the Federal Government is handling the matter.
When conflicts of this nature affect the communities, it is for the State and Local Government Area to resolve them”.
The Governor said he has no hand in the drilling of oil or the issuance of licenses, but he is committed to peace and security in communities for the development of the state.
He said that the issue is on the economic development of the host communities, Rivers State and Nigeria and should not be politicised.
Speaking at the meeting, Managing Director of SPDC, Mr. Osagie Okunbor said that the company operates the OML 25, with the operating license renewed by the Federal Government for another 20 years.
“We operated in a cordial environment until 10th August, 2017 when some community people entered the facility.
The information that was given to us was that they were unhappy over issues of social amenities and employment. We listened and we were keen to address these issues. But at some point another element entered the equation, which was that we should relinquish and hand over to Belema Oil, that is from the community,” he said.
Chairman of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area, Mr. Rowland Sekibo, said Belema Oil management created the impression that they bought the OML 25 from Shell Petroleum Development Company, but the company refused to transfer the operational right.
He said that a meeting with stakeholders at NNPC Abuja, it was discovered that the license of OML 25 was still under the ownership of Shell.
He said though the owner of Belema Oil is from the area, it was illegal to shut down the oil production facility in order to arm twist the system to sell it to Belema Oil.