SPDC: Ijaw youths set to embark on mass protest

Irked by the alleged non-compliance with the rules and regulations of Bayelsa State Physical Planning and Development Board, youths in Bayelsa State are warming up for a showdown with the oil companies operating in the state. They are said to be getting set to embark on mass protests to headquarters of Shell Producing and Development Company (SPDC) in Port Harcourt and Lagos.
The state government had recently accused Shell in particular of such huge negligence with reference to its Gbaran Ubie Integrated Oil and Gas Project in Gbaranmotu leading to sealing the facility.
It was gathered on Friday that the planned protest was sequel to the letter written to President Muhammadu Buhari by Governor Seriake Dickson, containing the alleged contraventions of extant laws of Bayelsa State by the oil and gas companies operating in the state resulting in loss of revenues.
Shell and other oil companies operating in the state were said to be guilty of the non-compliance allegation.
In a statement in Yenagoa, the sate capital, on Friday, youths operating under the aegis of Izon Progressive Youth Vanguard led by Comrade Bobolaiyefa Owopelei, who is also the Chairman of Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC), Central Zone, bemoaned the criminal exploitative tendencies and irresponsible behaviour of the oil companies particularly towards their host communities.
He said: “We are glad that the Bayelsa State Government has decided to fight this injustice from both legal and intellectual perspective. But on our part as youths, we will fight them according to tradition. We will take this fight to their doorsteps. Every morning we will march to their offices in Lagos and Port Harcourt. We will mobilize our youths in those states to picket their offices. We will shut their operations until justice is done. We say enough is enough”
Owopelei further complained about the double standards employed by oil and gas companies operating in the state: “Why would the oil companies pay taxes and levies in Lagos and elsewhere and do not feel obliged to do so in Bayelsa? And yet Bayelsa State is at the centre of the oil and gas industry which plays host to a high percentage of the nation’s assets in the oil and gas sector.
He went on: “Multinational oil and gas companies occupy large spaces of scarce land resource in the state without a commensurate contribution to the economy of the state. They do not have offices in the state. They do not employ indigenes and do not award contracts to indigenes of the state. We say enough is enough”.
The IYC leader further hinted that beyond the protest, they have informed their various representatives in both the Senate and House of Representatives to raise these issues (complaints) on the floor of both chambers as a matter of urgent national concern which must be addressed through effective legislation.
“The relevant issues in this matter must be tackled using all means to underscore their seriousness. That’s why we have taken steps to inform all our representatives at the National Assembly to raise these issues at the floor of both chambers. We will no longer tolerate a situation whereby oil companies in the state will continue to deliberately flout and contravene the laws of the State, in particular, the State environmental laws, the Physical Planning and Development law and other State and national laws that bring tax and levy revenues to Bayelsa State. We will also be fully represented at this year’s Oil and Gas Trade Conference holding in Houston, Texas, the United States (U.S.) to press our case,” he disclosed.