By Christopher Odamah, Warri
The oil monitoring group, Niger Delta Indigenous Movement for Radical Change (NDIMRC) on Friday threatened a total show down as a result of the revelation that Northerners owned 83% of oil blocs in the country, urging President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison Madueke to revoke and re-allocate the controversial oil blocs.
NDIMRC in a statement, at the weekend by its President, Nelly Emma; Secretary, John Sailor and Public Relations Officer, Stanley Mukoro; threatened the President and Petroleum Minister total war if they failed to address the situation.
They said that 83% oil blocs owned by the Northerners was unacceptable to the people of the Niger Delta region while saying urgent step must be taken by the President and Minister of Petroleum to carry out a proper investigation on the matter.
According to the group, if the Petroleum Minister failed to act fast, “We are going to carry out drastic action in the Niger Delta region and this may cost the Minister her job and we will not support the President in 2015.”
The group added; “The oil blocs should be revoked and reviewed or every other oil blocs from today should be given to the people of Niger Delta region whose lives are being degraded by oil exploration, adding that the owner of the resources must be respected and we may be forced to ask for total control of our resources. We are set to control our God-given resources by ourselves and nobody will drill any oil in the Niger Delta region if this situation we have found ourselves in is allowed to continue.
“We are demanding the President and the Petroleum Minister to revoke all oil blocs in the country. Let them bring all the issues to the table so that we can discuss them. The people of the Niger region have suffered for too long and we are not going to accept a situation where 83% of the oil blocs are being controlled by the Northerners,” NDIMRC stated.
It also said; “The Petroleum Minister must give the people of the Niger Delta a better deal for their resources. As at today, the multinationals oil companies are picking up all the juicy contracts and the Northerners are controlling 83% of the oil blocs leaving the Southerners in penury, enough is enough and if the Petroleum Minister fails to act now, she may not be in the country to enjoy her position as a Minister because we are ready for a total showdown with all those that are against the progress of the Niger Delta region and its people.”
The statement further added “President Goodluck Jonathan knew the game in the oil industry hence he brought the Petroleum Minister on board to head the ministry. But we are amazed that since the President came, all juicy contracts running into billions of dollars are being given to the multinational oil companies such as Saipem, Samsung, Daowoo, OPI and HII. The President and the Minister are not doing enough to help our people that have invested heavily on capacity building. We are demanding that contracts should be given to our people. We may be forced not to support the re-election bid of the President in 2015 because he has not done anything for the people of the region where he comes from.
According to the group also; “We are not comfortable with a situation where all the major contracts running into Billions of Dollars are being awarded by the NNPC and its Joint Venture Partners to the multinational oil companies with nothing left for our people who borrowed to build up capacity in the oil and Gas industry. Samsung has picked up contracts worth 3.3 Billion Dollars and Saipem 3.3 Billion Dollars. In all these projects being awarded, our people are not being encouraged and we dare ask, what is the future of our people?
“The President and the Minister must act fast to define the roadmap for our people, otherwise we will be forced to take unpleasant action against the multinational oil companies. And the Yorubas who have positioned themselves in the multinational oil companies against our people. When jobs worth N150 million are given to Southerners, the whole world is told about it and nobody is raising eyebrows over the billion Dollar contracts being given to the multinationals,” the group added.”