Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has revealed that he had long foreseen crisis looming over the Oil Mining Lease (OML 11) issued to Robo Micheal oil company to start the drilling of oil in Ogoniland
He stated that as the Chief Security Officer of the state he had alerted President Muhammadu Buhari of the attendant negative consequences in the volatile oil rich area for oil prospecting to resume in Ogoniland without the federal government engaging the people to show the extent of the clean of the oil pollution from past years of similar operations.
Wike said that when he learnt of the granting of license to Robo Micheal to start drilling oil without appreciable level of implementing the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, report that recommended the immediate clean-up of Ogoniland he knew that crisis of unimaginable proportion was looming.
The Governor who made this revelation in a more than two hours news and current affairs programne of Rythm 93.7 Port Harcourt over the weekend ,said after briefing President Buhari, he thanked him for bringing the OML 11 issue to the notice of the Federal Government and promised that he will look into the matter.
According to Wike: “I got information that a company had been awarded operative license for drilling of OML 11 and I knew that some people protested that the the Federal Government promised that it will clean up Ogoniland because of oil pollution and wondered why the federal government is granting license for the resumption of the drilling of the same oil?”
“When I visited Mr President, it was one of the issues I discussed with him. As a state, I am not against drilling oil because that will increase the revenue allocation to the state. But that there is a fundamental insecurity issue I needed to bring to his attention that we need to speak to Ogoni people on the status of the clean up of polluted areas because I may not be able to guarantee the safety of any company prospecting for oil in Ogoniland.
“Ogoni people must be shown in concrete terms what is happening about the clean up before any prospecting of oil could start.I am not against drilling oil in Ogoniland but fundamental things have to be done first before people capitalize on it to cause insecurity in the state, “Governor Wike said.
Since the information that Robo Micheal had been granted the OML 11 license there have been series of protests by a group called Ken Saro Wiwa Associates led by its national coordinator ,Gani Topba who led a peaceful protest to NNPC Port Harcourt and NNPC Towers Abuja against prospecting oil by the company and Shell Petroleum Development Company.