By Ephraim Oseji

Urhobo People’s Right Monitoring Group (UPRMG) has given Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC) conditions under which it would be allowed to continue exploration of oil in Urhobo communities Delta State.

They gave the oil company seven days ultimatum to meet with representatives of the different Urhobo oil producing communities, threatening that failure to comply with their request means they must  vacate Urhoboland as they would be considered as trespassers whose leases over the lands have expired.

The group, in a statement by Chief Sylvester Kowho and Mr. Alfred Serumeh demanded talks on  eleven other items, including the one million US dollars contracts to be exclusively reserved for indigenous contractors.

“Other demands include publications made for those contracts should be suspended in the case of OML 30 and 34 pending NPDC meeting and negotiation with this body. We also demand for 100% of unskilled labour, 80% for semi-skilled and management professional, 80% job slots for the people in Urhobo oil communities”, the statement said.

“We are also requesting that all community liaison officers of the company should be reserved for indigenes as well as 5% of production should be reserved for community development and 20% equity participation by communities in addition to NPDC remediating the environment.”

The group which advised that NPDC must relocate back to the communities where SPDC has been operating in OML 30 and 34, also demanded that  NPDC should immediately enter into meaningful and transparent negotiation with Urhobo oil producing communities on oil field by oil field basis  and rejected what it described as the muddled up and divide-and-rule type of GMOU in which more than fifty communities with different oil facilities were lumped up in the name of GMOU.

The group said the communities who chose to employ experts to negotiate for them must be allowed to do so, while NPDC should commence immediate payment of expired leases and rentals to the various landlords in the communities.

It noted with regret that when the Shell Petroleum Development Company sold her interest in Urhobo land sometime in 2010/2011, it went away with billions of naira worth of unpaid expired leases and rents due to SPDC landlords in the area.