The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People has applauded the House of Representatives for halting the sale of OML11 to Sahara Energy for the sum of $250million.
This is as the House of Representatives recently urged the Federal Government and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company to suspend the planned auction of the Oil Mining License (OML) 11 for the sum of $250million to Sahara Energy Resource Limited.
The House also mandated the Committee on Petroleum Upstream to urgently investigate the planned OML11 auction and report back, following a motion moved by a lawmaker Hon. Victor Mela Danzaria, where he raised the alarm on the need to uncover every covert arrangement concerning the auction.
According to the lawmaker, “The government is involved in an under the table covert arrangements to auction OML 11 assets to the Sahara Energy Resource Limited for a paltry sum of $250 million as against the $1 billion offered by SPDC Limited.
“By a Court of Appeal judgment of 16 August 2021, the SPDC joint venture lost its right to renewal of the operating licence. OML 11 asset was thereafter renovated to an operating subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited,” the lawmaker disclosed.
Reacting on the development, MOSOP hailed the House of Reps for halting what it described as attempts by Sahara Energy to escalate conflict in Ogoniland.
President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke, accused NPDC, of conniving with Sahara Energy to renter Ogoni oilfields through the backdoor
Nsuke said Ogoni oil fields have the capacity of producing 1million barrels of oil per day, and also accused Sahara Energy of towing the line of SPDC who was kicked out of Ogoniland since 1993 after prolonged conflicts.
“The National Assembly, in this respect, must be commended for halting an attempt by Sahara Energy to escalate the conflicts between the Ogoni people and the Nigerian oil industry which currently has cost over 4,000 Ogoni lives.
“Sahara in collaboration with the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, the drilling arm of state-owned NNPC Ltd had attempted to get parliamentary backing to resume oil production in Ogoni against the wishes of the people.
“This move does not only threaten the very existence of the Ogoni people but also portends an escalation of the Niger Delta conflicts which at its peak dropped Nigeria’s oil production capacity to 800,000 barrels per day. This low ebb was the consequence of a gross miscalculation; a thinking that violence and death are the solution to all disagreements.
“Sahara Energy is also clearly towing the same line as Shell, obviously counting on the repressive powers of the state to force its way into Ogoni. It believes it just needs the nod of the National Assembly and then it can mobilize the powers of state to force its way into Ogoni irrespective of the fact that the Ogoni people have expressly rejected the company. For Sahara, lives don’t matter, free and informed consent don’t matter, ethics and morality don’t matter; what matters is getting what you want no matter who is harmed and no matter how much damage the society suffers.
“I expect the National Assembly not to find itself anywhere in the circle of those who wish to throw the Niger Delta into another dark era just to impress the power brokers behind Sahara. The National Assembly cannot fail in its responsibility to keep the Niger Delta region safe and peaceful. Ogoni has had enough; the scars of Shell’s shocks are yet to be overcome and it will only be very devastating returning Ogoni back to 1995.”
The Ogoni leader further offered aa pathway to negotiate a solution by prescribing the establishment of an Ogoni Development Authority.
“The expectations of the Ogoni people, both dead and alive and agrees with the expectations of Ken Saro-Wiwa when he said: “I do not expect the Ogoni People to allow oil production in the land until it is properly negotiated.” It is our hope that the government will accept our offers to unlock the potential to inject an estimated daily income of $79 million in oil revenue (excluding gas revenues) into the Nigerian economy.
“We do not expect the Ogoni people to be killed for oil. But if no one would listen and accept our offers to negotiate, Sahara and her allies may kill, much more than Shell did while the world will watch Nigeria dance naked as it unleashes its armies against peaceful people whose only crime is a desire for better life,” MOSOP said.
