Attempts by Conoil Producing PLC to start drilling in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, has been impeded as Egbema host communities have barricaded Company, seeking for negotiation and agreement before commencing operation.
This is coming on the heel of the Council chairman, Hon. Smart Asekutu’s frantic effort to seek for peaceful settlement to allow the Company commence its drilling operation in the area.
Our correspondent learnt that Conoil Oil Producing Company had mobilized its drilling platform into Ibarebote in Egbema Kingdom of Warri North LGA on Wednesday August 23, 2022 without any prior negotiation or interaction with the leadership of the host Communities.
A reliable source from the creek told our correspondent that a local chief from the area, Chief Comrade Pastor Tikilikiwei said that the oil drilling company platform, including its equipment, expatriates and local staff, strayed into the designated area of AX4 oil field to commence operation without any form of interaction with the communities leadership before entry.
According to him, the platform has been anchored at a spot and barricaded by protesting members of the affected communities including youths and women who are insisting that the company must enter into an understanding with them before it could commence operation.
“The uproar started on Wednesday 23rd August 2022 when the rig was sighted in the environment by the people without any prior negotiation or interaction with the Leadership of the Communities in the territory.
“Conoil Producing Plc is trying to intimidate and oppress the peace-loving people of Egbema kingdom. How could an oil company in this 21st century navigates and situates a rig into someone’s location without first having a negotiation which might lead to signing a General memorandum of understanding ( GMOU), Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU), not even an Freedom to Operate (FTO)”, Chief Tikilikiwei said.
Also commenting on the development, Chief Stephen Okoro, who is from one of the communities, stated that Conoil Producing Plc is suspected to have struck a deal with a third party not authorized by the leadership of the Communities, thereby further depriving the people of their entitlement.
Two of the eldest men in the Community, Chief Paymaster Ugami and Apostle Lylon Ugure also expressed their displeasure over the nefarious attitude of Conoil Company towards the Communities, calling on the company to come forward for a proper negotiation with their hosts to guarantee peace for it to commence its operation.
A woman leader in the area, Mrs Akpo-aboebinimighan Awomu, also expressed the grievances of the people, adding “that the women folk were in support of the decision of the Communities Leadership and elders in calling on the oil Company to do the needful by coming down to negotiate with them and have a common understanding before operation to avert any unforseen doom which might befall the company.”
Our correspondent however learnt that a certain “Alhaji”, who is a popular indigene if one of the communities, is allegedly being fingered as the man behind the sudden unauthorized appearance of the company’s oil rig platform in the community creek.
The Warri North Council chairman, Hon. Smart Yomi Asekutu, could not be reached for comments as at the time of filing this report, but his personal assistant, Mr. Silas Torunwei who spoke to our correspondent, confirmed that “the Council chairman is already aware of the development and has waded into it to find amicable solution”,
Meanwhile, as at the time of filing this report the Conoil rig platform is anchored at a point in the waterway in the community with its equipment and personnel inside.
The community protesters have barricaded the entrance to the platform with a marine rope tied across bearing some red ribbons tied to it.
Our correspondent gathered that the communities’ protest was exacerbated by the attitude of an earlier Company, Enisco Nig Ltd which carried out the clearance and the excavation of the site for Conoil.
According to our source, Enisco Nig Ltd refused to dialogue with the Communities before it embarked on the excavation and preparation of the operation site for Conoil, adding that “in the process, ecological and ecosystem were destroyed, thereby depriving the people of means of survival without any compensation”.
All efforts to reach out to the management of Conoil company have not been successful. So also is the effort to reach out to the State Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Asaba, Prince Emmanuel Amgbaduba.
Communities that constitute the area of operation of the oil company include:
Ugure Community 1and 2, Olugbaka Community 1 and 2, Tanga Community,
Ibarebote community, Ojobor Community
Obegha Community, amongst others.
