The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), has petitioned the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) over alleged breach of the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) by an indigenous oil company, Green Energy International Limited (GEIL).
CLO, in the petition, which was signed by its South-South zonal chairman, Sir Karl Chinedu Uchegbu, said conducts and activities of the firm will likely escalate the already tensed environment in the Niger Delta, especially in Andoni local government area of Rivers State, if not checked.
Copied in the petition were the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Director General, Department of State Services (DSS), the Inspector General of Police and the chairman, Host Communities Committee of the House of Representatives.
It reads in part: “We are in receipt of a petition by the four communities of Asukoyet, Asukama, Ayama Ekede and Ugama Ekede, all host communities of Green Energy International Limited, in Andoni LGA of Rivers State, protesting the brazen disregard to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the communities and Green Energy International Limited over modalities for setting up the Board of Trustees for the Host Communities of Green Energy-Lek Oil Development Trust Fund ( HCGLDTF), and the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
“It may interest you to know that after years of persistent struggle and agitations by the host communities, occasioning several protests, GEIL finally acceded, under pressure from the state government, to constitute the Board of Trustees of HCGLDTF, with the imposition of Asuk, Nathan Sampson as chairman of the board, against the decision of the host communities and the state government who intervened to restore peace.
“It may also interest you to note that the said Asuk Nathan Sampson has culmulatively served for 7 years as the board secretary, against the community that nobody can serve for more than 5 years.
“But after setting up the Board, it took years of footdragging and several protests by the host communities before the Board was inaugurated by GEIL.
“Now GEIL has gone back to it’s bag of tricks again to truncate the functioning of the board of trustees, acting in cahots with Chief Gad Harry Ekpirikpo, a local benefit captor and former chairman of the board and Nathan Sampson Asuk, HRH David Serena Dokubo Spiff and Rear Admiral Emmanuel G. Ofik (rtd)
“Against the provisions of the MOU signed by the communities with GEIL on mode of selection of members of the board and the PIA on community governance structures, GEIL with the active connivance of Chief Gad Harry, has breached surreptitiously with the removal of the following from the board, against the wishes of the communities who selected them to represent them in board.”
