Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta on Monday resolved the rift between Shell Petroleum Development Company SPDC and Ogulaha community in Burutu Local Government Area of the state.
It would be recalled that protest started some days ago in front of the Shell gate at the Forcados Terminal when Ogulagha community youths barricaded the company’s gate over unresolved disputes with the community.
Angered by the sack of twenty workers from the company since 2020, the angry youths said Shell had failed to reinstate them as promised.
Okowa who was represented by the State Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Chief Emmanuel Amgbaduba, at a meeting of both parties at the Government House Annex, Warri, said that government would take over the payment of the sacked workers for the next three months.
“As you know, our governor operates a people oriented government and the interest of safety and balance between the host communities and the oil companies.
“We have used this meeting to do a soul searching period for us to know the needs of our people and address them.
“As for today, there’s been a protest at the Forcados Terminal at Ogulagha and the government deemed it fit to intervene to avoid it escalating.
“The issues raised has been addressed and we are planning to have another meeting on September 27 to seal up the whole process as we have agreed.
“We agreed that in the interest of peace, government will take over the payment of staff as retrenched in the next three months effective from end of September and we also appealed to the Oil company to collaborate with the community Chairman and rebuild their access procedure to allow authorised persons from the community to relate with the company,”
Amgbaduba described Ogulagha community as very peaceful and not known to be disobedient to government.
Chairman of the community, Johnbull Ogobiri, said the community would suspend the protest in obedience to the state government’s intervention while hoping that all key decisions reached would be implemented.
