The Ogoni Peoples Assembly (OPA) has threatened to ground oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta, should the federal government fail to give XAVON Energy the operatorship of OML 11 to break 26-year-old impasse ‘peacefully,’ even as they complained about the neglect of the area.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja Monday, OPA leader, Probel Williams, said if government refused to correct the persistent degradation in the region, the outcome of their action will attract world attention.
He explained that OPA is a coalition of Ogoni people drawn from all strata of society; the youth, academia, elders and chiefs.
“As we speak now, we don’t even have water to drink. Our fathers survived on fishing but we don’t even have the rivers to fish. The ecosystem has been completely devastated and destroyed.
“We can no longer continue to mobilise ourselves and members and pay transport to Abuja to brief the media. Next time we are going to address news men, we would have shaken the whole world. Our action will attract the attention of the world.
“What this means is that if the federal government fails to heed our advice to award the exploration to XAVON Energy, we will make exploration in Niger Delta impossible,” they warned.
He warned that Ogoni nationalities were facing serious existential threats, resulting from “extreme youth unemployment, hitting over 80 per cent and the security challenges arising thereof.
“The total collapse of the school system and the fall of educational standards in the land. For example, out of 10 secondary schools in Khana local government area, only one is open as we speak.
“The dearth of industrial infrastructure in the land despite the abundance of oil/gas resources and indeed the threat of extinction of the Ogoni race, if nothing is done.”
Williams said, “It will be recalled that on January 4, 1993, Ogoni people started a campaign against Shell Petroleum Development Company the then operators of the OML11 for the total destruction of our environment, neglect of the people, and the refusal to address the economic needs of the people by way of industrial development and employment.
“Ogoni people have not been, and are still not opposed to oil exploration but shall never allow further exploration on the terms and modus operandi of Shell PDC.”
