The people of Okoloma community, Ndoki in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State are crying over what they described as “environ- mental degradation” of their area and other series of “ill-treatments” meted out to them over the years by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), an oil giant operating in Okoloma since 1950’s.
They are alleging among other things that there is an existing Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMOU) between them and Shell, but that Shell has not been honest in its implementation, as the oil company has always allegedly employed “a divide and rule system.”
The community claimed further that they have used and exhausted all peaceful measures to ensure that Shell adhered to the provisions of the GMOU, but the oil giant has always failed them.
These and others were un- earthed when the Centre for Environment and Human Rights Development (CEHRD) carried out a one-day sensitisation programme, which saw the men, women and youths in attendance at Okoloma Ndoki.
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Lawrence Dube, a senior programme officer on governance and peace building and coordinator, corporate and accountability programme of CEHRD, said that one of the reasons for the seminar was to teach the oil producing communities like the Okoloma people about non-violent resolution and mitigation measures when handling conflicts with oil companies.
“They can negotiate their rights and get a safe access and opportunities without recourse to violence,” said Dube. He observed from what the people said that Shell has reneged from the GMOU and that the GMOU was poorly funded, saying that after collation of data, CEHRD would take up the matter with Shell, and find how best the SPDC would be implemented as agreed.
Dube said that communities hosting oil companies should “understand that the oil companies in Nigeria are not government, they are people who came to do business and they cannot answer all their needs but those within the context of environmental and human rights issues that relate to their activities.”
Some of the Okoloma people who spoke to BusinessDay decried the poor condition of living of the natives, lack of farm land to cultivate their crops, complete absence of hospitals and health centres, lack of employment opportunities for their graduate youths, absence of skills acquisition centres and alleged unwillingness of Shell to extend scholarship opportunities to their sons and daughters, among other complaints.
