Ijaw women from five states of the Niger Delta have rejected the planned sale of the onshore assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited in the Niger Delta to Renaissance African Energy.
The women, who addressed a press conference on Wednesday in Port Harcourt under the aegis of Coalition of Ijaw Women Voices (CIWV), said the proposed sale of the assets was “shocking and unacceptable”.
The text of the conference was read by Ms. Annkio Briggs, a prominent voice in the Niger Delta. SPDC had announced the decision to sell off its onshore assets in the Niger Delta to Renaissance Africa Energy, a consortium of five companies made up of four exploration and production companies based in Nigeria and an international energy group. The sale is subject to the approval of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The Ijaw women said that in rejecting the purported plan to sell off the assets, they were placing the Federal Government, the Attorney General of the Federation, the National Assembly, the National security Adviser, Governors of the Niger Delta States and members of the National Assembly from the Niger Delta on notice that the stakeholders of the assets that Shell has purportedly put up for sale are the people of the Niger Delta.
“The attempt to sell off these vital assets domiciled in the Niger Delta and particularly in Ijaw territory is unacceptable and will be resisted,” the women said.
They recalled that in the past 70 years, Ijaw nation, its swamps, creeks, mangroves, soil, drinking water, men, women, children and the future had suffered uncountable disasters, devastations and deaths, and destruction of livelihood and environment for which they hold the Federal Government of Nigeria, Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ENI and other international oil companies responsible.
They therefore said the attempt to sell off the mentioned assets by Shell was “dubious, deplorable and unacceptable. “We call on the consortium and all other oil and gas interests to note that in buying any of these assets they are buying the agitation and resistance of our people,” the women said.
They demanded to be given the right of first refusal to purchase and own those assets because any consideration can be given to any other interested group, saying that this attempt to sell off Shell’s assets in the Niger Delta without the consent of the people that own the land “is yet another attempt to enslave, continue to impoverish our people and steal the future of our children.”
They therefore in an eight-point demand called on women from other ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta to raise their voices to reject the connivance between the Federal government and international oil companies to sell off the God-given assets of the people of the Niger Delta to themselves.
They called for transparency in the process of selling off the assets and demanded to be consulted as part of the negotiations and decisions to sell any oil and gas asset in Ijaw territory.
They also demanded to know who would be responsible for the remediation, reparation and compensation for the devastation in Ijaw territory.
The women also recalled the recent decision of the Federal government to relocate the headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to Lagos because Lagos is the aviation hub and also the relocation of some key departments of the Central Bank to Lagos, and renewed the call for the relocation of the all oil and gas operations to the Niger Delta where most of the oil and gas resources and facilities are domiciled.
“It is necessary to remind the Federal government of Nigeria and Oil and Gas companies that Ijaw people cannot continue to carry Nigeria on our backs. Henceforth we will reappraise our continued stay within the country that takes everything from us.
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