By Samuel Oyadongha

YENAGOA:  INDIGENES of Foutorogbene I, II, and III communities in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have threatened to cripple Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, operations in the area if the company failed to compensate the families of the five kids who reportedly lost their lives in the aftermath of the May 27, 2012 oil spill from its Beneside facility which devastated the community.

The natives who issued a 14 day ultimatum to the management of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant are angry over the alleged insensitivity of the company several months after they lost their kids after drinking from the polluted waters.

The Youth Chairmen from the communities, Mr. Preye Warri (Foutorogbene 1), Comrade Emmanuel Ebis (Foutorogbene 2) and Emmanuel Jebbi (Foutorogbene 3) in a statement warned Shell of imminent dangers if the issue was not settled speedily.

The statement read in part, “As people we will not tolerate this kind of attitude from Shell, the best option for them, is to come and indemnify the deceased kids families and affected persons of the spill in our communities for peace to reign between the communities and shell. And this option is only open for 14 days, but if they refuse to do what is good for them. Possibly we will resort to violence as we will not fold our hands while seeing our kids dieing like animals.

“We will automatically stop their boats from plying our waterways and we demand their workers withdraw from the area with an immediate effect as we will not guarantee the safety of Shell oil workers in our territory.”

According to the communities, “We view the visit of SPDC officials to our communities as worthless, full of insensitivity and embarrassment to the entire communities and families of the deceased kids as they were left to die. We consider it valueless and animistic, as host communities.

“The incident happened over five months ago. What were they waiting for? They waited until the flooding from the recent rains has ravaged our communities and washed the oil in the water surface and cover the weeds, grasses and the entire land level.”