Indications have emerged that a reconciliation deal brokered last week by the Delta State Government between oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited (SPDC) and Ijaw host communities in the Niger-Delta may hit the rocks unless fresh demands by some youths and militants in the area are urgently met.
The deal, which was finally sealed last week during a meeting in Warri, involving the Federated Niger-Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC) believed to have for long reportedly impeded progress on the negotiations, would have made a return to SPDC�s operational bases in the communities yesterday (Wednesday) possible.
THISDAY, however, gathered that the new threat surfaced following a statement on Wednesday, credited to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND), that the planned return by the company to begin repairs on its damaged facilities would be stiffly resisted unless further conditions were met by SPDC.
According to our sources close to the concerned parties, the Ijaw youths including the militants have insisted that they should be directly compensated for accompanying the SPDC staff in their expedition to resume operations in the affected areas, which have not witnessed any activities for the greater part of this year due to alleged vandalizing of its facilities and pipelines.
THISDAY checks revealed that the youths argued that they could not countenance the present position, under the said deal, where they (youths) would merely be escorting the SPDC workers in the area �free-of-charge� they would be expending their energy and time and taking general risks.
It was further learnt though the president of the FNDIC, Chief (Dr) Bello Oboko, had initially dismissed the new agitation, being pursued by the militants under the platform of the MEND, he had no choice but to advise both the SPDC and Delta State Government to look seriously at the new demand.
The Secretary to Delta State Government (SSG), Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, who also chaired last week�s reconciliation meeting, where agreement was reached on the setting up of the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) has been making frantic efforts since the MEND’s threatening statement on Wednesday to salvage the deal and enable the SPDC resume operations as soon as possible.
Although efforts to ascertain from SSG, yesterday, the latest development on situation was unsuccessful, THISDAY further learnt that Uduaghan, may have, on behalf of the state government, already agreed in principle to the new demand of at least N1m (one million naira) a day for the youths of the entire area who would be working for one week with the JIV members.
Accordingly, the government representative was yesterday reportedly trying to talk the MEND leaders out of carrying through with the group�s threat of “blood-shed” should SPDC return to the communities without their demand being offset, by offering the youths some form of palliative while SPDC management was considering the new demand.
Some of the conditions that had stalled a return of the SPDC to the bases include an end to gas flaring; �demilitarization� of the operational region (Niger-Delta); reactivation of polluted environment and restoration to its �original status� the soil destroyed by oil spill.