By Amaechi Okwara
Asaba
Delta state government through the office of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice has waded into the rift between Host Communities in OML 34 and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) over alleged refusal to comply with terms of the Project Global Memorandum of Understanding for the Domestic Gas Project and the Steady State Global Memorandum of Understanding by the Oil coy.
The Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Peter Mrakpor, presided over the mediation meeting between the Cluster Development Boards of the various communities that make up OML 34 and representatives of the multi-national oil giant, NPDC.
Mrakpor said he was acting on the instruction of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to resolve all community/oil coy related disputes.
He said the move was aimed at protecting the rights of the people as well as to create the enabling environment for investors to do business in line with the ease of doing business objective of the state government.
He added that the days when terms of agreements were violated with impunity were long since gone, saying that the Ministry of Justice “will henceforth enforce the compliance all such agreements through the court system.”
He charged the Management of NPDC to improve on its community relations and ensure that funds meant for the Communities for developmental purposes are released without further delay.
Earlier, Chief Nuwawan Oghenero Aladey, who spoke on behalf of the Clusters, while thanking the Delta Attorney-General for the peace initiative, lamented the poor attitude of NPDC towards the Communities.
He accused the company of denying youths in the area employments, refusal to pay courtesy visits to traditional rulers and community leaders in the area, non-payment of backlogs of peace awards and refusal to release project funds as contained in the signed MoU to the communities.
