The Ogoni Youth Development Initiative (OYDI) has frowned at comments credited to the Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL) on the amount of losses the Federal Government has incurred due to the none operationalization of the oil facilities in OML 11 housing Ogoni oil blocs.
Recall that PINL which is a surveillance company incharge of the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) made the comment during a meeting with stakeholders from pipeline host communities in Rivers State.
The company has claimed that the Federal Government was losing about $226bn United States Dollars annually due to the shutting down of the wells.
Reacting to the comments, Comrade Imeabe Saviour Oscar, Global President of Ogoni Youths Development Initiative said the comment by the company was unfortunate, saying the company seems to be only interested in the oil and revenue from Ogoniland and not the welfare of the people.
He noted that Ogoniland was yet to get any tangible benefits from the previous exploration activities by former SPDC now Renaissance Energy Africa, who they accused of polluting the land and leaving the people with nothing.
Oscar added that such statement is capable of causing crisis and pitching the Ogoni people against other ethnic groups. He further noted that the area was yet to recover from the loss of some of its prominent leaders including Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight other Ogoni brothers who were murdered by the Nigerian government for protecting the Ogoni oil.
The youths group called for an apology from PINL over the said comment, saying such comment was not fair to the people of the area
“PINL should apologize to the people of Ogoni. First, for not being concerned about the people or the number of the thousands of persons that lost their lives in Ogoni as a result of this Ogoni oil.
“For 50 years that Shell operated in Ogoni land, there was nothing to show to the Ogoni people for the mineral resources that was taken from them by the Federal Government of Nigeria, especially from a multinational oil company like Shell. There was no impact. Even as we speak, there is no milestone achievement as what an oil multinational company operating in the land that’s as commensurate with what they were taking.
“The people of Ogoni lost their lives because they tried to address the issues with the federal government of Nigeria, especially the killing of the likes of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other of our blessed heroes, and that of thousands of Ogonis that lost their lives, but that the pipeline surveillance company is not concerned about the number of persons that lost their lives because of this oil, but rather concerned about the revenue that was supposed to come out from the people’s land for this 32 years that oil has not been in use. This means that they are not being fair to the people of Ogoni,” he said.
He further questioned the number of Ogoni persons being carried along by the company in it’s surveillance activities.
Oscar advised the company to put a human face to their operations in Ogoniland by engaging Ogoni youths and women in jobs, skills acquisition and other welfare packages .
“PINL should be more concerned about persuading the government to treat the Ogoni people fairly by compensating for the loses, creating job opportunities for the youths and women and carrying out welfare packages to better the lots the people and make up for the losses incurred as a result of oil pollution on their lands before talking about resumption of oil exploration or calculating losses by the Federal Government because there is no greater loss than the loss of human lives,” Oscar said.
