Protesting women, youth shut down Shell operations in Nembe

Hundreds of protesting youth and women from communities in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa on Tuesday shut down the operations of the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, in Nembe Kingdom.

The action took place a day after some youth of Twon-Brass community in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State barricaded and shut down the Agip Brass Oil field in Brass.

The Agip oil field terminal in Brass produces about 500,000 barrel of crude oil per day.

The Nembe protest was led by the Chairman of the Oil and Gas Committee in the area, Nengi James, and the President of the Nembe Youths Association, Jonathan Omongor.

Mr. James, who briefed newsmen in Yenagoa, shortly after the protest, listed the grievances of Nembe people against the SPDC to include undermining of the supreme traditional stool of Nembe Kingdom and the unjust marginalisation of Nembe people by the SPDC.

He accused the oil giant of not fulfilling its developmental commitments to the community just as he expressed the peoples’ frustration for the incessant gas flaring activities of the SPDC in the area.

According to Mr. James, under the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU), which the SPDC entered with Nembe Kingdom, “there is an undertaking and obligation by the SPDC to expend the sum of N270m on developmental projects in Nembe.”

He flayed the limited budget provided by the oil giant to meeting the Kingdom’s infrastructural challenges, and warned that Nembe people would not accede to anything less than N2 billion for development when the GMoU was expected to be renewed by February 2013.

Mr. James also alleged that the SPDC had failed to fulfill the pledge it made five years ago to build a gas turbine that would generate electricity in the communities.

“Our people are not pleased that there is no electricity power generating set in Nembe communities, the communities are usually engulfed in darkness when night falls, there is a complete collapse of light infrastructure in the communities,” he said.

The community leader said that SPDC’s exploration activities would remain shut down until the demands of the people were met.

When contacted, SPDC’s spokesperson, Precious Okolobo, who disclosed that the company had enjoyed a “longstanding cordial relationship” with communities in Nembe Kingdom, called on the people to resolve their grievances through dialogue.

“The SPDC has implemented projects that have helped to improve lives and develop infrastructure in Nembe; notably is the highly successful GMoU initiative which has seen the Nembe cluster board transformed into a foundation,” he said.

Mr. Okolobo, who expressed optimism of a peaceful resolution of the crisis, said that it was the policy of the SPDC to resolve matters such as this through dialogue.