Host communities disown Oil Company for alleged neglect, shoddy MoU

*Threaten legal action Preparations for the full commencement of operations by the Niger Delta Petroleum Resources company (NDPRC) on Oil Mining Lease (OML 54) may suffer some setbacks. This is because, just 18 days after the successful acquisition of land for their operations in Ogbele and Obumeze communities in Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State, six families from the two communities, claiming to be the real owners of the acquired land have finally rejected the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that granted permit for the company to begin operations in the area. The six families of Ocheke, Agwolo and Agbolo in Ogbele Community and Umudhie, Agbolo and Umu-Ebenwodu in Obumeze community are demanding for a new MOU or at least a complete review of the existing one because it is obnoxious and shoddy, fraught with irregularities aimed at denying them their natural rights as primary landlords. Speaking through the platform of Agwuamuoche Landlords Association, the aggrieved host landlord families said the new MOU is expected to properly address the issues of employment and the sharing formula for the five per cent trust fund that is contained in the document between the host landlord families and the rest of the two communities. They have also threatened legal actions should the company failed to accede to their demands. In separate statements released in Port Harcourt, Rivera state capital over the weekend, Elder Prince Eze Gwogwo and Mr Enwukaegba Gift, chairman and Public Relations Officer respectively of the association lamented the untold hardships of the host families due to the refusal of the company to recognize them distinctly from the entire communities as the primary landlords to the company. “The document that has no place for the host landlords to have appropriate benefits from the operations of the company is not an MOU. The host families are therefore insisting that their rights as primary host landlords be given to them. “They need to deal with the real host landlords before any other person because the land was our only source of livelihood that has been lost to them. And today, we, the host landlords are suffering. Our sons and daughters are not employed. But this time, if they don’t do it, they will be digging a pit for themselves to fall into. And we will not fail to institute a legal action against them,” the chairman stated in his statement. The PRO, on his part stated, “Our concern is to have a proper MoU that will be a binding document between the host landlord families, the communities and the company. We are actually not impressed about how things are going. If the MoU is drawn up today and the host families are neglected again, there will be reactions.” They told our correspondent on phone that the terms of the MoU were unacceptable to them because interests of the communities were made to overshadow those of the real landlord families. “We want the sharing of the fund pegged at a ratio of 60 – 40 per cent for the families and communities respectively,” they demanded. We gathered that an appropriate committee of the State House of Assembly had in 2016 sought to mediate in the crisis, but failed to bring the management of NDPR to terms with the host landlords. The association complained that the unfriendly posture of NDPR towards the landlords had further corrupted even the subsidiaries working in the area, noting that those companies have also joined in ignoring the concerns of the landlords, stressing that no such company will ever receive their approval to operate in NDPR anymore. The protest of the landlords was coming just as the company is currently mopping up activities to launch a refinery project in the area, with the people expressing the fears that they would be completely marginalized in the face of the current neglect by the company. NDPR, which possessed the large expanse of land that cut across Ogbele and Obumeze communities in 2000, with an MoU to enhance smooth working relationship has since been operating ‘Topping Plant’, a mini diesel refinery in Oil Mining Lease (OML 54), located in the area. All efforts to contact representatives of the management of the company to react to the families allegations failed. When our correspondent visited the company’s head office along the East – West Road in the state capital, his effort was rebuffed by the security personnel at the gate. Memoye Oghu, Port Harcourt