• Insist two facilities per state won’t stop oil theft
Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa
Ijaw youths wednesday rejected the federal government’s offer to allow two modular refineries per state in the Niger Delta, maintaining that the move was incapable of halting oil theft in the region.
The youths under the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide, also called for the relaxation of the preconditions for getting licences for operating the facilities, noting that the terms were capable of taking the establishment of the refineries beyond the reach of Niger Delta people.
President of the IYC, Mr Oweilaemi Pereotubo, who briefed journalists at the Ijaw House, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, insisted that two modular refineries per state were ‘grossly inadequate’ and would not stop illegal oil bunkering.
Flanked by other executive members, Pereotubo also argued that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s statement that the Niger Delta states will ‘host’ the refineries was ambiguous.
He explained that using the word ‘host’ was synonymous with what currently obtains where oil blocs are given to all sorts of people outside the region, whereas the Niger Delta was only acting as hosts without benefits.
“ I am not aware that we have up to two Ijaw sons with oil blocs, yet we have oil. People who own them do not know the colour of crude oil. The federal government must give Niger Delta people oil blocs,†the youth leader said.
He declared that the federal government must ensure that modular refineries are owned, managed and operated by the Niger Delta people.
“The acting president has said each state will host two modular refineries. The active word there is ‘host’. We do not know what the acting president means by hosting.
“Does ‘host’ mean ownership or control. We don’t know. We want to own and operate modular refineries. What is hosting? It means you will give a license to somebody outside Niger Delta to have modular refineries in the Niger Delta, and we will simply host. It’s ambiguous. He should expatiate.
“What are two modular refineries. They are not giving opportunities to indigenes to host the refineries. We are saying that two modular refineries per state is grossly inadequate. We will not take it, we will not allow it,†he declared.
The youths also reiterated their call for the relocation of headquarters of International Oil Companies (IOCs) to the Niger Delta, stressing that the 90-day ultimatum given to the companies to comply still stands.
While calling on Osinbajo to be stern in implementing the directive, the IYC said: “We cannot continue to pay the price of having our land suffer from oil exploration activities while other states benefit from the taxes that are due us.â€
The IYC also called for the remediation of the degradation of lands belonging to host communities, demilitarisation of the Niger Delta, improvement in infrastructural development and a return to true federalism.
“On the devolution of power and the restructuring of this country we stand. Our position is due largely to the faulty federal system currently in practice in Nigeria. We call on the government, particularly the National Assembly to revisit the laws of resource ownership and the overall restructuring of the Nigerian state,†the group said.
