‘Shell Sponsors Insecurity In N/Delta,’ Ogoni Group Reacts To Court Order For A Return Of OML 11 To SPDC

An Ogoni group has described a recent court judgment ordering the Federal Government to renew the Oil Mineral Lease (OML) 11 to Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) as an open invitation for the company to “complete its agenda of genocide” against the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta.

The Federal High Court in Abuja last Friday ordered the Minister of Petroleum Resources to grant the renewal of the Oil Mineral Lease 11 to Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria for 20 years.

The suit was instituted by Shell against the Minister of Petroleum Resources and the Minister of State.

 But a group, Conscience of Ogoni People (COOP), has berated SPDC for instituting the suit and accused the company of being behind the spate of insecurity in Ogoniland.

In a statement signed by its National Coodinator, Chief Gani Topba, the group vowed to mobilise against the return of the company to Ogoniland and accused it of a deliberate plot to destabilise the Ogoni people and weaken their resistance to decades of environmental pollution.

The statement said: “We believe that SPDC’s desperation to return to Ogoni at all cost through this ill-fated suit is a sad reminder of the decades of ecological and military war waged against the Ogoni people from 1958 till date.

“By this suit, SPDC has deliberately set out to remind the Ogoni people of the dark days of the military oppression, genocide, economic strangulation, environmental degradation and execution of the Ogoni heroes, Ken Saro Wiwa and his fellow martyrs-in-struggle. The Ogoni people will not allow this to repeat.”

The group, which commended President Muhammadu Buhari for resistance pressure to renew the oil lease for Shell, describes the company has “an irresponsible corporate citizen” that is desperate to continue its oil exploration without regard to the peace and wellbeing of the host communities.

The statement said the court judgment, if not challenged at the Court of Appeal, would enable SPDC complete its agenda of genocide against the Ogoni people for another 20 years.

“You will recall that Ogoniland is currently boiling in terms of insecurity orchestrated by violent clashes and bloodshed. Our men, women and young people are being killed daily. Communities are being sacked while houses and other properties worth billions of naira are being destroyed. The insecurity in Ogoniland has reached feverish pitch with the people now living in fear of the unknown.

“Our intelligence reveals that SPDC is the sponsor of the cult clashes that have shaken Ogoni to its foundation. The aim of SPDC is to stoke up crisis, cause division and to weaken our Ogoni spirit as well as to prevent us from forming a united front to fight this injustice. Our intelligence has also revealed that SPDC has only one agenda in its desperation to return to Ogoniland at all cost; and that is to finish the genocidal agenda which was begun since 1958 and reached its crescendo in the 1990s.”

The group declared its solidarity with the FG and urge it to appeal the judgment without delay, adding it had also instructed its legal team to study the judgment with a view to initiating necessary and appropriate steps to appeal against the judgment as an interested party.

“We reiterate that SPDC remains persona non grata in Ogoniland and that the Ogoni people will continue to non-violently resist every clandestine and back-door tactics adopted by SPDC in its bid to actualize its grant design to decimate the Ogoni population, impoverish them, destroy their livelihoods and economy and render their environment an ecological wreck.

“We call on Ogoni people to be resolute and steadfast as we shall collectively mobilize our people to non-violently and peacefully fight for our rights as indigenous people recognized under international law and we shall win,” the statement said.