Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa
Seven communities at Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Estuary Area (EA) in Bayelsa are protesting to demand their autonomy in development matters.
The communities in Ekeremor Local Government Area took the protest to the EA oilfields off the Atlantic coastline in several speedboats chanting solidarity songs in the Ijaw dialect.
As of Tuesday, the protesters who have spent their eighth day at the facility said that appeals to vacate the facility and promises to resume talks on the dispute have been received and assured that they will remain peaceful and will keep vigil and help the military secure the facility.
They vowed to occupy the facility until the oil firm reverts the composition of the EA Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) to seven in reflection of the cultural affinity of the people.
They maintained that plots by SPDC to foist five other communities in the Host Community Development Trust (HCDT) is unacceptable.
The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 mandates oil firms to set aside three per cent of their operational expenses for community development to be managed by HCDTs.
The communities: Bisangbene, Amatu 1, Amatu 2, Letugbene, Orobiri, Ogbintu, Azamabiri, said they would not hesitate to shut down the company’s operations if their demand was further ignored.
Mr Timothy Geregere, Chairman of Bisangbene community, who spoke on behalf of the aggrieved host communities regretted that they were compelled to resort to a peaceful protest haven made efforts to no avail to resolve the dispute on the negotiating table.
The community leader said it was regrettable that despite making the position of the seven settlements clear in several letters to the company, SPDC ignored them.
Geregere said: “We have been compelled to go this far by mobilising the community to draw the attention of all stakeholders to our simple demand, we want to be treated separately in the EA oil field and we have written several letters to SPDC.
“We have come here to draw attention to the delay tactics of foisting ‘strange bedfellows’ together, which is a grand plan to retard development.
“We will not allow divide and rule in our communities, so we are telling the world that we should be allowed to operate a separate trust, we will remain here until our demand is met and earnestly hope they will not push us to shut down the facility,” he said.
He explained that the separation is necessary because there are about twelve communities in the EA and the twelve communities cannot work together.
According to the community leader, initially, four different clans operated the GMoU before the advent of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in 2021.
He said that when the PIA came SPDC indicated the intention to merge the different clusters, but the seven communities rejected the proposal and insisted on having a separate trust.
He listed the 12 communities as Amatu 1, Amatu 2, Bisangbene, Letugbene, Bilabiri 1, Bilabiri 2, Ikeni, Izetu, Orobiri, Azamagbene, Agge and Ogbintu.
However, Bisangbene, Amatu 1, Amatu 11, Letugbene, Orobiri, Ogbintu and Azamabiri, are the seven communities that have agreed to work together.
When contacted for reaction, Mr Michael Adande, Spokesperson for SPDC said: “The EA Host Communities Development Trust is a subject of intra-communal litigation, the outcome of which is being awaited before any further steps by the SPDC.”