Indigenes of Nembe Kingdom in Nembe local government area, over the weekend staged a protest threatening to shutdown facilities of Royal Dutch Shell facilities for allegedly stealing crude oil belonging to Aiteo Eastern E&P, which has deprived communities in the area from benefiting entitlements due to them.
The protesters carrying placards with inscriptions such as “SPDC return the stolen crude immediately”, “Crude oil theft: Nembe is vindicated, Shell is the culprit” and “Shell is sabotaging Nigeria’s economy” said they are giving Shell a one week ultimatum to comply or risk their facilities in Oluasiri area of Nembe being shut down.
A Federal High Court in Lagos had issued an injunction barring Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiaries from withdrawing money at 20 local banks until it ringfences potential damages in a lawsuit brought against the oil major by Aiteo Eastern E&P.
Aiteo is seeking about $4 billion in total over alleged problems with the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) pipeline it bought from the Anglo-Dutch group in 2015 and over claims Shell undercounted its oil exports.
Court documents seen by Reuters show that Aiteo is seeking compensation over what it says was the poor condition of the pipeline and associated lost oil sales.
Speaking to newsmen during the protest, the Nembe City Youth President, Albert Cons-Benibo, said, “we entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Aiteo but they pleaded that we give them time to settle down, an appeal we granted graciously.
“But along the line they failed to meet up their obligation to us. As understanding people, we gave them more time yet they failed. So when we confronted them they accused us of sabotaging their production.
“As a community we invited the military to help chase out whoever was sabotaging their activities but at the end it was discovered that it was Shell that was stealing the crude from Aiteo facility.
“We are protesting that Shell should refund the crude they have stolen so that Aiteo can meet up their responsibility. Now look at Nembe today, there is no light and water for the common people. We cannot allow multinationals to come here and steal our own oil on our own land.”
Also speaking, Moses Ayerite, the President of Nembe Youths Federation, said, “our demand is that Shell should return what they have stolen from Aiteo because they are of no benefit to us now. We have found out that the data Shell have been presenting fake data as what they get every day.
“In other words, if Aiteo is supposed to get 100 barrels per day, the meter in Shell’s meter in their Bonny Island reads that what they should get is 50 barrels per day. Already the matter is in court and it has been rules that Shell should return what they stole back to Aiteo but till now they have not done anything. So we are giving them one week to comply or we will shut down their facilities in Some and Oluasiri.”
One of the protesters, Beredugo Afuroyanate, Women President of Opu-Nembe, said, “when Shell was operating here in Nembe, we used to enjoy scholarship for our children, SME training and empowerment for women and jobs for our me as part of their social responsibility but when they left, Aiteo came into Nembe.
“Since Aiteo came in, we have not enjoyed these benefits and our investigation revealed that Shell was stealing crude from Aiteo. And as a result of that, Aiteo is unable to pay us our entitlements. From the way people understand us, we are the crude oil but when you come to our Communities we are suffering.
“We are begging the federal government to tell Shell to pay the money they are owing Aiteo or we will come out in our numbers and stand against this oppression.”
