As the Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, to determine the remote and immediate causes of the oil crisis in Uzere commences sitting, JOE OGBODU examines the issues that had played out before the panel was constituted.
Although rich in oil, Uzere community in Delta State cannot boast of any tangible project that could better the lot of her people.
Yet, it’s among the first oil producing communities in the heart of the Niger Delta region.
Oil giant, Shell, which carried out exploration and exploitation of oil in the land, can boast of producing 56,000 barrels of oil per day from its 39 oil wells in two fields, Uzere East and West, yet Uzere is poor and neglected.
Uzere is one among hundreds of oil producing communities in the Niger Delta, where excessive gas is openly flared and the environment polluted by oil companies to the detriment of the local people.
Today, Shell and Uzere community are in a battle over a Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) which is supposed to be a working document for development of the oil-rich but strife-torn community.
Shell is facing a Delta State government judicial panel of inquiry among other security agencies involved in the oil crisis which had bedeviled the once sleepy community.
The oil community has been embroiled in crisis owing to a series of protests over a GMoU which the community claim is the remote cause of the problem they have with Shell.
The Uzere people have continually accused Shell of deliberate refusal to enter into MoU with its host community, saying Shell’s choice was to award little contracts to some local chiefs to block the quest for MoU is to the detriment of the land.
Just few months back, the community again rose against Shell but the protest snowballed into a major conflagration which consumed the palace of the paramount ruler of the land.
The protest degenerated at the Shell’s flow station in the land, resulting in the alleged killing of three youths by men of a security outfit, Joint Task Force (JTF) comprising the police, soldiers and navy, drafted to the scene.
It was gathered that about 100 persons were injured in a stampede when security agents fired indiscriminately into the air to scare away the protesters.
But spokesman of the military taskforce on the Niger Delta, Lit. Col. Timothy Antigha, denied the killing of the youths by soldiers of the security outfit, saying rather that some youths from the community that opened fire on soldiers.
Some of the protesters had dared the security personnel and invaded the flow station, shutting it down after which they burnt down two Hilux vehicles in the premises.
As the crisis snowballed, the villagers trooped to town, and burnt the palace of the monarch, HRM Isaac Udogri I, who they accused of aiding and betting Shell. They also torched his wife’s store and other properties worth million of naira in the community.
The community later ‘deposed’ their monarch over allegations that he was siding with Shell and blocked every opportunity the community had to pressure Shell over the MoU.
The Uzere story is no different from ugly pictures in most parts of the Niger Delta, particularly, the famous Olobiri in Bayelsa State, where oil was first struck in 1958.
Similar protest over gross neglect by Shell took place in the community in 1992, where some oil wells were shut by demonstrators, mostly women and children, who had protested over lack of water, electricity, hospital in the community, despite Shell’s continuous oil exploration in the area.
President General of the Kingdom, Chief (Dr) Owhe Emeakpo (JP) said: “It is a known fact that Uzere land has been blessed with oil and gas resources. And it is also a known fact that Shell took the advantage to exploit this natural resources on our fatherland for the past 53 years (1958 to date) and the company did not enter into any agreement with the people since then”.
He said that the community had reminded Shell in October, last year “the imperative of putting a frame work in place of the (GMOU) so that we can legally know the basis of our relationship, partnering and cooperation”.
“We have often wondered why Shell has refused to come and sign GMoU with Uzere kingdom when they have written GMoU with other host communities in Rivers and Bayelsa states,” the community added.
But Joseph Obari, SPDC West, Media Relation Officer, believes that SPDC has phased the implementation of its highly successful GMoU model for sustainable development in the host communities of the Niger Delta.
Late last year, SPDC built and equipped a N150 million cottage hospital for the Uzere people and tied it to its GMoU programme which it claimed is already being implemented in three clusters of Delta State.
Obari said: “Apart from two GMoUs tied to specific projects, the programme is already being implemented in three clusters in Delta State.”
SPDC’s General Manager, West, Mr Tony Attah, who handed over the facilities to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan late last year, had said that the Uzere Cottage Hospital was one among the best of such 27 health facilities in the Niger Delta region.
Attah, who was represented by the SPDC West, Government and Community Relations Manager, Mr Donald Ovberedjo, noted that SPDC recognized that health care was one of the biggest challenges in the Niger Delta, and had been playing a major role in the sector since the late 1960s, training personnel, donating drugs and consumables as well as equipping infrastructure.
Besides, the cottage hospital, SPDC was said to have launched a Community-based Health Insurance Scheme (CHIS) for the benefit of the people similar to the one that was first established in Obio, River State.
But Dr Awoture Eleyae, a former Deputy Director of the National Sports Commission, who hails from Uzere had told the panel of inquiry probing the crisis in Uzere during the week that the CHIS was a deceit stressing, “there are no doctors nor drugs in the N150 million cottage hospital built by Shell”.
Owhe while speaking to newsmen recalled that they have a long-drawn battle with SPDC before they reluctantly built the hospital which he said, is not functional because Shell has refused to fund the CHIS that will enable the hospital to take off and function properly.
He noted, however, that Shell funded a similar Obio Cottage hospital in Rivers State for N24m to take off but wondered why they have refused to fund the Uzere Cottage Hospital.
Owhe said the crisis broke out on Tuesday, November, 29, 2011 as a result of the expiration of ultimatum given to Shell to commence the process of entering into a GMoU with the host community.
He noted that the community had also written to the Delta State Government to compel Shell to enter into a GMoU with the host community but Shell had deliberately refused. “So we decided that if SPDC still wants to operate in Uzere land, it should come and sign this agreement and that was why the youths have to go to the flow stations to protest the long-dawn GMoU battle”, Owhe said.
At the sitting penultimate Monday, hundreds of villagers, including young and old, who thronged the Government House, Annex, Warri, venue of the sitting of the judicial panel, said they didn’t have problem with government but with Shell.
Some of the indigenes who had testified before the panel, accused the ‘deposed’ monarch of shielding Shell each time the MoU issue was discussed at the community’s annual town hall meetings.
Awoture Eleyae, while under cross-examination, told the panel that the troubles bedeviling the community could be traced to the reigning monarch.
The 85-year old man noted that the crux of the matter was that people were angry that the monarch who is not an illiterate unlike their forefathers who were exploited by Shell because of their lack of education, decided to trade with the community’s aspiration instead of compelling Shell to have an MoU with the people.
“When Shell came to Uzere about 53 years ago, our people were not civilized. So Shell exploited the oil and gas resources that we have and impacted heavily on the occupation which gives us money-farming and fishing without any written document”, Eleyae said.
Uzere, beyond the oil crisis has had its own share of communal disputes.
Eleyae told the panel that he had chaired a peace committee in 1986 when the embattled monarch, Udogri, had problems with the Edion-in Council (King Advisory Council) in the Kingdom over related issues.
He said because of “the crisis, the Ovie left the town to neighbouring Emede where he stayed for about three years. There were three cases evolving on the crisis but we resolved the issues and came out with a document in 1989”.
It was gathered that in 1994, there was another crisis between the Ovie and the people for which the Prof Abednego Ekoko peace committee was set up.
It was learnt that two Ovies (Kings) have once been deposed over communal issues in the Kingdom.
At a time, one of the early Ovies in the Kingdom, Etuwede I, who had problem with the people and ran away, was said to have died when his canoe which he travelled on, capsized on his way back to the community.
Another of the early rulers, Ukpenukpepia Etuwede II, was deposed and was reportedly reinstalled after he was found not guilty of the charges for which the community people had sacked him.
Uzere people said they had dethroned the current exiled monarch for staying outside the kingdom more than 21 days.
They said it’s sacrilegious for their Kings to be away for more than 21 days from his stool.
Prince Israel Akiri, who moved the motion for the dethronement of the monarch, hinged the action on alleged high handedness, pride, greed autocracy, falsehood and frivolous petition which subsequently led to the arrest of some of the kingdom’s leaders who spent the last Christmas in police custody.
Some women who had protested at the Government House Annex during the probe by the judicial panel, reiterated that the Ovie had been siding with Shell because he was a major contractor with the oil firm to the detriment of the community.
“The Ovie is our problem in the community and what has happened should be blamed on him and the Odiologbo of the kingdom, Chief Ben Obegba. If we should tell you all the atrocities committed against the community, you will weep for us”.
“They don’t see anything bad about Shell on our community because they are gaining a lot from Shell. They handle all contracts from Shell and by so doing, they undermine the community aspirations”.
But the embattled monarch in a recent interview with newsmen denied the claims by his people.
He accused some people in the community of instigating the youths against him.
Although, he didn’t say if he was a contractor to Shell and other oil firms before he became the King, he owned up that he makes money from oil companies as a contractor, but has never used his position as king to subvert the aspirations of the community.
He said: “I am not denying that I am a contractor. I am a contractor in NDDC; I am contractor in DESOPADEC; I am a contractor with the state government and I am a contractor with Shell. I am a contractor with Agip and I am a contractor with Chevron. I make my money that way. I don’t touch the community’s money”.
Udogri I, who said he remains the King, alleged that one Iduh Amadhe had been the one fighting him and trying to instigate the locals against him. “One Chief Iduh, since I was installed in 1984, has been fighting me”.
But in quick reaction, Chief Iduh Amadhe, said the monarch was frugal with the truth, because, how he had allegedly pocketed the entire community has been made public.
Amadhe said that he contributed immensely to the making of the Ovie and could not be the one “fighting him since his installation as the traditional ruler, but if he says so “ I think something is wrong with him because I contributed to making him”, Iduh said.
The erstwhile President General of the apex social/cultural body of the Isoko people, the Isoko Development Union (IDU), wonders why he should instigate youths to burn the palace which he had supervised during its construction.
“I supervised the building of the palace. I was the chairman of the building committee. And if I actually sponsored the burning down of the palace, then I must be insane and I need to have my head examined”, Iduh said.
He said he was not at Uzere when the crisis which led to the burning down of the Ovie palace started. “I was in Akure. If I was around, the palace would not have been burnt and those two souls would not have been lost.”
The former council chairman in Isoko South Local Government, alleged that he was deliberately being targeted and framed up by the Ovie.
Iduh recalled that about two months ago, some aides of the monarch allegedly framed him up for kidnapping, saying “since they failed in their deceit, they now want to rope me into the burning of the palace so that it will be a case of arson whereas I was nowhere near Uzere on that day.”
Investigation however revealed that in the wake of the crisis, Udogri I, had petitioned the police authorities in Abuja after which Chief Iduh, the President General of the community, Chief Emeakpor Owhe, among others, were arrested and later transferred to zone 5, Benin City, where they were detained in December, last year for over 15 days.
It was on this premise that Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan inaugurated a three-man judicial commission of inquiry to unravel the remote and immediate causes of the oil crisis brewing in Uzere.
The governor said he was disturbed by the incident which could compromise his peace and security agenda.
The commission will submit its report within 30 days of its first public sitting which commenced on Monday 27th, last month.
The panel has Justice Sylvester Eliwario as Chairman; Rev.Fr. Chris Ekaba and Mr. Sheddy Agbagbara as members while Mr. Sunday Monye serves as counsel and Mr. Felix Okobi as the secretary.
At the first sitting, there was every indication that the panel would compel Anglo Dutch oil giant, Shell, the JTF as well as the state Police Command and SSS to appear before it over their roles in the crisis.
Ehiwario said all the parties involved in the crisis would appear before the commision. “These include the SSS, JTF and the police because these things happened under their noses,” he said.
President General of the community, Chief Owhe Emiakpor, thanked Governor Uduaghan for constituting the panel and hoped that it would find a lasting solution to the crisis.
He advised that the venue of the sitting be relocated for logistical and security reasons.
He said, “Though we commend the government for setting up the panel, we are asking that the sitting should be relocated to Isoko because of security reasons and because it is difficult to transport our people to this place every time the panel sits’’
Owhe, expressed the hope that the panel would ensure that the MoU is entered between Shell and the host community.
Inaugurating the panel, Governor Uduaghan had charged its members to be emotionally detached and carry out the assignment with utmost dedication.
Culled from Nigerian Compass
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