CRISIS LOOM AS TEN NEGLECTED OIL PRODUCING COMMUNITIES IN NIGER DELTA TAKE NDDC TO COURT

Nine major oil producing communitie in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State and one community in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State who have suffered a common problem of neglect by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for over two decades have approached the Federal High Court II in Yenegoa to challenge the implementation of its approved sharing formula in line with the NDDC act establishing it in a suit number FHC/C8/218/2023 between Comrade Efegi Kemeabogha and nine others vs NDDC.

Speaking to journalists at the court premises in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State after the first hearing of the legal battle, the coordinator of the ten communities, Comr. Efegi Kemeabogha explained certain provisions of the NDDC. In his words, “The NDDC Act clearly warned that why allocating resources to member states of the commission, local governments and communities; it should be determined by the volume of crude oil and gas productions including onshore and offshore oprtations.

“This makes it mandatory for the inaugural board to formulate resources distribution template known as the NDDC sharing formulae which comprises inter-state (Regional integration) shfomulaearing and inter-state (within state for L.GA, and communities) sharing formulae respectively. The inter-state sharing formulae states that 35% by volume of oil and gas production by state, 20% for equality among the oil producing states, 5% for ecological issues, 25% for regional integration projects and 15% for administrative costs.

“Also, for the smooth operation within individual states, the intra-state sharing formulae states that 60% of the resources distribution for volume of crude oil and gas produced by each local government area and by extension the host and neighboring community, 20% for equality among local government areas and communities, 10% for pipeline and wellheads LGAs and communities and 10% for exploration zones”.

Comr. Efegi Kemeabogha disclosed that oil production from the nine communities alone is more than half of the entire Bayelsa State oil production. He accused officials of the federal government agency and the elites of consistently diverting resources meant for the development of these communities.

“If these sharing formulae were religiously implemented, every community and local government area of an oil producing state would have developed appreciably. Unfortunately, the operators of NDDC and the elites have consistently diverting projects and programs due for oil producing communities to the places of their interest. That is why our communities: Agbidiama, Amatu 1, Bilabiri I and 2, Bisangbene, Egbemo-Angalabiri, Letugbene, Ogbotobo and Peretorugbene all in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State and Oshie community in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State have been criminally neglected for over two decades by the managers of NDDC.

“For instance, Amatu 1, Bilabiri 1 and 2, Bisangbene and Letugbene are neighbouring communities to the popular Bonga oil field, Agbami oil field, EA & EJA whose combine production is more than half of the entire Bayelsa State oil production according to NNPC annual report, yet these communities have never benefited any project or employment from NDDC since inception.

“It is shocking to note that, the operators of these oil fields have been consistently remitting their 3% operational cost as provided for in the act as a stream of revenues for the commission. For instance in 2008, SNEPCO- the operator of Bonga Oil Field remitted over 6 Billion Naira and in same year the entire SPDC fields remitted only 11 Billion Naira. Also, STARDEEP which is the operator of Agbami oil field remitted 4.5 Billion Naira in 2009 when the entire SPDC fields operations could remit 13 Billion Naira in the same year. We do know that SNEPCO and Stardeep operate only on these fields in the entire Nigeria which implies that these accruals to NDDC are from the petroleum resources of these our communities.

He revealed that despite the fact that oil production of just two among these communities is more than that of Abia and Imo states put together, the communities have been left severely underdeveloped with the harsh effects of exploration activities.

“The case of Egbemo-Angalabiri and Agbidiama Communities may be a shocking revelation to even scholars of the Niger Delta. These our two sisters communities are the hosts to five prolific onshore oil fields of Tunu, Opukushi, Opukushi North, Kambo, and Clough Creek and their combine oil production volume according to the NNPC annual report is more than Abia State and Imo State put together.

“Unfortunately, only two non-functional transformers and a few pieces of solar powered street lights are sited in Egbemo-Angalabiri, while in Agbidiama, an abandoned six class room block and a non-functional solar powered water project only are provided by NDDC since creation.

He also frowned at the situation that no one from any of the ten communities has either benefited from employment or scholarship programs of the NDDC as part of its provisions for host communities.

“Beside infrastructural neglects, human capital empowerment is another area of concern of these communities. From its creation, NDDC have been recruiting staffs for its operations as part of the 15% administrative cost as provided for by the NDDC sharing formulae which has consistently increased to 40 Billion Naira in recent years and more than half of this money goes to staff which is inaccessible to non staff. Yet our people have been denied of employment and scholarships programs in NDDC and therefore are not beneficiaries of these provisions.

Speaking on the recent forensic audit of the NDDC by the federal government, Comr. Efegi noted that it was designed for the elites toake more money but leave oil producing communities like theirs impoverished. He expressed worry that the constant depletion and degradation of their environment as a result of activities of multinational oil and gas companies has continued to make life difficult for their people.

“The celebrated forensic audit of NDDC was not meant to address the issues of neglect of our community by NDDC, rather it was a design by the elites to maintain the status quo. For instance, the forensic audit states that about 13,000 jobs were awarded, and that about 7,000 jobs have been completed while over 5,000 jobs are ongoing. Now, the fundamental question is, how many of these projects are situated in these our communities? More so, the focus of the present NDDC board is to complete legacy jobs which by implication, our communities may not be beneficiaries.

“Again, one of our fear is the depletion of the oil fields since oil resources is a non-renewable resource. While it takes million of years for its formation, its rate of depletion which depends on the exploitation rate is fast in Nigeria where sustainable utilization and harvest of natural resources is not or poorly respected. In addition, according to expert opinion, a typical active oil field deplete between 1.3 to 1.7 % annually. This implies that any field that consistently produces for two to three decades must have been depleted to over 70 to 80% of its reserves. It means, in a few years to come our oil wealth will be exhausted and more so, the world is transiting from fossil fuel to Eco-friendly energy sources due to climate change challenges. Thus the demand and value for crude oil may not be the same in years to come. This is our major fear.

“Secondly, the international oil companies operating in Nigeria are now shifting to deep offshore operations after devastating our environmental domains from their operations. This is more so, the NDDC act clearly empowers the board to tackle ecological and environmental problems that arise from the petroleum upstream industry while liaising with the oil companies on pollution matters for prevention control and rehabilitation of the Environmrnt. But our communities are not aware of any action taking by NDDC in regards to our environmental restoration from petroleum contamination.

“In fact, the huge volume of petroleum resources extracted from our communities and the contributions to the Nigeria economy beget the creation of the NDDC to develop this our communities since 2000 yet we still remain criminally marginalized and neglected by the managers of NDDC. Enough is Enough”