The Itsekiri ethnic nationality in Delta has unanimously has endorsed the list of representatives of communities compiled by the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse 111 on the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
The endorsement was reached at a meeting on Sunday in Warri.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting, Chief Oma Eyewuoma, the Ologbotsere of Warri kingdom, said that at the commencement of the PIA, the king invited all the Itsekiri communities to make nominations.
He said that the decision by the royal father was to ensure the active involvement of all the Itsekiri communities in line with the provisions of the Act.
According to him, the decision of the Olu of Warri superseded every other positions as regards the implementation of the PIA in Iwereland.
“The Olu of Warri, at the start of the PIA, invited all the Itsekiri communities, the oil producing communities to make nominations in order to be able to set up committees in line with the PIA Act.
“We will stand by the list Ogiame has put together; we will not allow anybody to add strange names into it.
“We can only stand by people who have clean slate and what the king accepted from the honest people from the various communities,” he said.
Eyewuoma said that the people had also resolved that the era where few individuals convert the money, and assets of Iwereland to their personal properties was over.
“We will go after all our assets and money that a handful of persons have been converting to themselves to the detriment of the generality of the Itsekiri people.
“The wealth of the Itsekiri nation must go round the people,” he said.
Eyewuoma warned that no group or organisation should alter what the people had compiled through the king.
He said that any attempt to do otherwise, they people would “shutdown all the flow stations and oil facilities in their domain”.
NAN reports that some persons recently threatened to shut down one flow station operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Warri South-West Local Government.
“The Itsekiri people will not shutdown one flow station, we will shutdown all the flow stations and facilities, we have the human capacities to do it, should we be ignored,” Ologbotsere said.
He said that they were reaching out to people particularly the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to ensure that things were done within the ambit of the law.
