By Festus Ahon

ASABA—DELTA State Government has waded into the rift between Host Communities in OML 34 and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, over alleged refusal to comply with terms of the Project Global Memorandum of Understanding, PGMoU for the Domestic Gas Project and the Steady State Global Memorandum of Understanding by the oil company.

The cluster development boards had petitioned the Attorney-General of the state accusing NPDC of failing to respect the terms of their agreements, threatening  to shut down the operations of the company in the affected communities if immediate steps were not taken to resolve the face-off.

Gov Ifeanyi Okowa

Presiding over a mediation meeting between the cluster development boards of the various communities that make up OML 34 and representatives of the multi-national oil giant, NPDC, state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Peter Mrakpor,   said he was acting  on  the instruction of  Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to resolve all communities/oil companies related disputes.

He said the move was aimed at protecting the rights of the people as well as creating the enabling environment for investors to do business with ease in line with the objectives of the state government.

Mrakpor, who succeeded in restoring peaceful community relations between the hitherto disputants, told all parties involved to respect the terms of all agreements reached.

He reiterated government’s decision that all MoU negotiations and reviews involving host communities and companies operating in their domain must be driven by the Ministry of Justice, noting that the days when terms of agreements were violated with impunity were gone.

According to him, the Ministry of Justice would  henceforth enforce compliance with all such agreements through the court system in the event that any of the parties was seen to be reneging on it.

He charged the management of NPDC to improve on its community relations and ensure that funds meant for the communities for developmental purposes were released without delay and urged the communities to desist from any form of violence and lawlessness.

Earlier,   Chief Nuwawan Aladey, who spoke on behalf of the clusters thanked the state government for the peace initiative which he described as first of its kind.

He, however, lamented the poor attitude of NPDC towards the communities, accusing the company of denying youths in the area employments and refusal to pay courtesy visits to traditional rulers and community leaders in the area.