By Lucky Oji & Perez Brisibe

UGHELLI—Leaders of Host Communities, HOSTCOM in OML 30, 34 and 65, yesterday, threatened to shutdown all operations of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, over an alleged breach of agreement reached between them and the company.

HOSTCOM in a letter by Efe Okovwurie, Morrister Idibra, Chief Edegware David and others, said they were giving the company a seven-day ultimatum to implement a resolution reached between them and the company on June 30, 2015 or face a total shutdown of its facilities in the area.

The letter reads: “NPDC has flagrantly violated the terms of the agreement by not implementing the content of the resolution except for the payment of N200,000,000 into the OML30 GMoU account for which NPDC is still owing N1 billion.

“Salaries of community workers in OMLs 30, 34 and 65 which are in arrears of six to nine months which NPDC promised to clear within two weeks from the date of the resolution are yet to be paid and this has led to serious tension across the affected communities.”

Warning against a likely reduction of a 20 percent mark-up attached to contracts handled by indigenous contractors to 15 percent, HOSTCOM said that such moves would lead to crisis in the communities and breed bad blood between them and NPDC.