By Chisaa Okoye (Business reporter)
Ogoni people, under the umbrella of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), have again rejected Sahara Energy as an operator for the Oil Mining Lease 11 (OML 11) Ogoni oilfields.
They have therefore vowed to declare Sahara Energy a “Persona non Grata” in Ogoni if the company continues to mount pressure and threaten the peace of Ogoni.
“Let it be clear that the Ogoni people are opposed to and reject Sahara Energy as an operator for the Ogoni oilfields, We have no confidence in them, we have not had any engagements with them and they have shown tendencies of being more repressive than Shell,” said Fegalo Nsuke, MOSOP President.
Nsuke, addressing members of the MOSOP Central Committee, maintained MOSOP’s opposition to Sahara Energy as an operator for OML11 Ogoni oilfields, accusing the oil firm of showing tendencies to be worse than the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited.
According to the Ogoni leader, Sahara Energy has not shown any capacity to manage a huge oilfield that has been engrossed in conflicts for decades, even as he accused the company of an inclination to be repressive.
“Ogoni group may be compelled to declare Sahara Energy a “Persona non Grata” in Ogoni if the company continues to mount pressure and threaten the peace of Ogoni”, Nsuke warned.
MOSOP called on the government to act speedily on the Ogoni issue to avert a humanitarian crisis noting that the Ogoni situation is very dicey at the moment with extreme youth unemployment, a devastated environment, high levels of insecurity, high death rates, no access to schools, no medical care and lots of other social problems.
Last year, host communities of the OML 11 in Rivers and Abia States vowed they would resist Sahara Energy Company from entering into any business deal in their land except the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC)-a subsidiary of NNPC Limited-dialogue with the communities on the operatorship.
The communities under the aegis of Ogoni, Asa, Imo River OML11 Oil Producing Communities insisted that before giving the operatorship licence to any oil company, NPDC should meet with the host communities and discuss on how their activities can benefit the people.