MOSOP Statement On Land Seizure In Ogoniland

Reposted from  Sahara Reporters New York
July 21, 2011

Press Statement

RE: REVOCATION OF RIGHT OF OCCUPANCY NOTICE IN RESPECT OF LAND REQUIRED FOR THE SERVICES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA FOR  PROPOSED NEW TOWN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT PARCELS A AND B AT NYOKURU AND BEERI COMMUNITIES

Members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has become aware of an advertorial by the Rivers State Government (RSG) published in The Nation Newspaper of Friday, July 15, 2011. The RSG in the advert says it intends to expropriate over 258,954 hectares of land from the Ogoni nation purportedly for overriding public purpose – to wit the development of a new town by the Federal Government.

The advert called on anyone who has right or interest in the expropriated lands to put in their claim within two weeks from the date of the advert. May we remind the state government that many of the affected landowners and farmers, do not have access to national dailies and so would not be aware that the state government is about to take their lands. It is also pertinent to once again call the attention of the government to the fact that there is an intrinsic link between the survival of the Ogoni nation and their lands. It is therefore imperative that in this democratic dispensation, the state government should imbibe and espouse the benefits of wide and adequate consultations in situations where they would deprive communities and individuals of their livelihoods and their ability to survive.

We find it difficult to rationalize government’s insistence on seizing another 258,954 hectares of land in Nyokuru and Beeri communities in Khana local government area of Ogoni immediately after an earlier controversial land grab of over 100,000 hectares spanning Tai and Khana LGAs and which has claimed three innocent lives. We are concerned that government has deliberately ignored the fact that its spate of land seizure in Ogoni would have dire implications on local communities.

MOSOP is aware that the discredited Land Use Act, the abrogation of which the governor himself has championed; vests authority over land in the State Governor. We are however concerned at the tone of the advert and the willingness of the state governor to take advantage of this obnoxious law to deprive communities and individuals of their right to livelihood and survival without transparent and adequate consultation.

This coercive tendency no doubt betrays sinister intent as this appears not to fit into the development agenda of the present national government. It is suspicious that while the story circulated earlier related to an industrial estate, we are now reading about development of a new town. It is on record that past regimes have seized colossal amount of lands from Ogoni communities for new town development only to abandon the project. Besides, huge amount of our lands have been captured for oil and gas production, many others grabbed by past administrations for some other development initiatives but abandoned and are wasting. We condemn this colonizing scramble for Ogoni through land grabbing, which will no doubt generate unmanageable land shortage for local subsistence food production and other uses especially housing development.

Internationally recognized best practice in land resettlement schemes require that when government expropriates lands from communities for overriding public purpose, it must first offer those who have lost lands, an alternative and suitably situated land, acceptable to them and on which they can continue their farming. It also requires that adequate compensation be paid to affected landowners and farmers for crops and other improvements on the land, taking care to compute the life span of perennial crops and the aggregate income landowners and farmers would have earned during the lifespan of such crop. The two weeks time frame set out in the advertorial is certainly grossly insufficient to resolve these issues.

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Image attribution: Flag of the Ogoni People by Mysid [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Four Communities: Imiringi, Elebele, Otuasega and Oruma stage peaceful protest against Shell, Friday, 08 July 2011

Reposted from Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria)

INTRODUCTION:

Four communities where Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC] operates in recently issued a 14 days ultimatum to the company, demanding for implementation of agreement reached with the communities in 1999. The communities include: Oruma, Otuasega, Elebele and Imiringi; all Ogbia speaking Ijaw communities in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, few kilometres to President Goodluck Jonathan’s community, Otueke.

Following the ultimatum to Shell, leaders of the community had appeared before the Joint Military Task Force [JTF] at the expiration of the time with a view to settle the matter amicably. Unfortunately, Shell could not convince the aggrieved communities that are demanding that the company honour the agreement it reached with them in 1999, and they decided to stage a peaceful protest to the heavily guarded Shell facility, the Kolo Creek Logistic Base.

ERA’s field monitor witnessed the protest that took place on the 7th of July 2011 and some of the protesters spoke with him.

TESTIMONIES:

We are here for a peaceful protest but if the JTF handles this matter in a violent way we shall only retreat and return in full force. Then it will be too bad for Shell because Shell has cheated us for too long. The Kolo Creek communities have been known to be very peaceful but if the soldiers and Shell take undue advantage of our peaceful disposition today to intimidate us, we shall not take it. If we hear any gun shot or if any of our members is injured here today by the soldiers, the rest of the state and the country will hear our action. All we are demanding for is that Shell should respect the agreement it reached long ago with our people; these four communities. They agreed to extend electricity to our communities but they are not doing so; while benefiting heavily from our oil wells. This is not a fresh demand, it is an agreement reached with us that we are trying to enforce.  — Amakiri Joseph, Vice-Chairman of the Community Development Committee [CDC] of Oruma

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By ThinkProgress War Room, Jul 6, 2011

Reprinted from Think Progress from the Center for American Progress

GOP Tax Giveaway of the Day: Big Oil Subsidies

Oil from a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline is coursing through the picturesque Yellowstone River as we speak, but Big Oil’s real gusher is located on Capitol Hill. Big Oil’s best friends in Congress make sure that year after year, billions of dollars in taxpayer funds flow into the coffers of the most profitable companies the world has ever known. In return, Big Oil spends millions each year to make sure that its friends keep their seats.

Here’s why it’s time to make the easiest of all choices — the one to end taxpayer-funded giveaways to Big Oil.

WHAT: Wasteful and unnecessary taxpayer subsidies for oil companies

HOW MUCH THEY WASTE: $77 BILLION from 2011-2021

WHO BENEFITS: Oil companies large and small, including the five largest oil companies who raked in $32 BILLION in profits in just the first quarter of 2011. ExxonMobil alone made nearly $11 billion in profits during the first quarter of this year.

WHO ELSE BENEFITS: Big Oil’s friends in Congress benefit from millions in campaign cash from the oil and gas industry. During the 2010 election cycle alone, the oil and gas industry pumped more than $21 MILLION into congressional campaign accounts — more than three-quarters of which went to Republicans. These same Republicans have voted repeatedly — and nearly unanimously — in favor of keeping oil subsidies over the past several months. In addition to lavish spending on direct campaign contributions, the oil and gas industry also spent a whopping $145 MILLION last year to lobby Congress.

DINNER TABLE FAST FACTS:

The average American pays an effective federal income tax rate of 20.4 percent, while ExxonMobil had an effective tax rate of just 17.6 percent over the past three years. That is of course far below the statutory corporate tax rate of 35 percent.
Even Big Oil CEOs themselves admit that they don’t need the subsidies. ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva told Congress: “With respect to oil and gas exploration and production, we do not need incentives.”

IN ONE SENTENCE: Instead of ending Medicare to pay for more tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and huge corporations, we need to end the billions in taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil.

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‘Nigeria loses 300,000 barrels of oil daily’, by Roseline Okere, The Guardian Nigeria, Monday, 04 July 2011

Former Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum Matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, photo: The Guardian Nigeria

DPR raises concern over depleting reserves

DESPITE efforts of the Federal Government   to check some cartels that are involved in oil theft, especially in the Niger Delta, their activities are costing the nation 300,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The government is losing this amount of the natural resource at a time that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has expressed the need to search for new oil deposits in order to boost depleting reserves.

The former Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum Matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, told The Guardian that government was aware of the situation and would ensure that those who were involved in the theft were brought to book.

He stated:  “Oil theft in the Niger Delta is a very serious matter.  The government has been combating them with military personnel.  The amount of oil they steal is about 300,000 bpd. This is not good at all for the economy.  These people are supported by big cartels of international agencies. They sell this oil cheaply. The government is doing all it can to put a stop to this huge lose. The government is interested in elimination them.”

In 2009, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Limited disclosed that Nigeria lost about $1.5 billion yearly to crude oil theft.

“Criminal gangs continue to steal oil from our pipelines at an estimated rate of 100,000 barrels a day. Theft and illegal refining cause extensive environmental damage. Sabotage and theft together accounted for more than 80 per cent of the spill volume from SPDC facilities in 2010”, Chairman/Managing Director of SPDC, Mutiu Sunmonu said.

WikiLeaks said recently that a United States diplomatic cable quoting a Nigerian official showed that a member of a government panel on troubles in the nation’s Niger Delta implicated some top political leaders as being the biggest forces behind the theft.

It claimed that the theft also fueled arms sales to the restive region while causing environmental damage and cutting production in a nation crucial to U.S. oil supplies.

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