By Jimitota Onoyume

WARRI—THE Federal Government and multinational oil companies have been urged to collaborate to reduce tension in the Niger Delta region by doing what is right in the oil-rich communities.

Niger-Delta

Reverend Ebidei Obigha made the appeal in his paper entitled  “Protection of Critical National Infrastructures in the Niger Delta, Need for a Workable and Sustainable Development Initiatives,” at  a meeting of  European Union, EU, Conflict Management Consulting, CMC, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and the leadership of Host Communities of Nigeria, HOSCON.

He blamed the Federal Government and the oil  multinationals for the crisis and conflicts in the region,  alleging that failure of the oil companies to implement Global Memoranda of Understanding , GMoU, reached with their host communities were largely responsible for  violence in several communities in the region.

“While the management of oil and gas multinationals give special attention  in their home countries, the same cannot be said about Nigeria. Instructively today, there are several legal battles, some spanning over 40 years, for no other reason than oil multinational deliberately refusing to implement already signed MoUs between them and oil producing local communities and in some cases, outright refusal  by multinational to pay compensation for spillages or at least carry out immediate remediation measures .”