President General of Ogoni Youth Federation (OYF), Legborsi Yamabana has urged the federal government and the Ogoni Dialogue Committee to adopt the community engagement model used by the Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), along the Eastern corridor of the Trans Niger Pipeline as the basis for resuming oil production in Ogoniland.
According to Yamabana, the youths are not opposed to the resumption of oil production, but want to be brought fully into the process.
The oil fields in Ogoni have been shut in for 33 years.
“There is a model that PINL has adopted and implemented in the Niger Delta, and that model is working. It is a model of constructive engagement, of inclusion, of carrying the host community along
“In all of this dialogue, the youths of Ogoniland have been excluded. If those driving the Ogoni re-entry lack ideas, they should go and meet PINL for the model they are using to succeed.”Legborsi maintained.
The Ogoni Youth Federation president spoke on Thursday, at a stakeholders meeting convened by PINL in Port Harcourt, Rivers State for host communities along the Eastern corridor.
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Earlier, Dr. Akpos Mezeh, General Manager, Community and Stakeholder Relations at PINL, told the meeting that operations across the TNP and the Eastern Gas Network were largely uninterrupted through the past month, sustained by collaboration with security agencies, contractors and host communities.
He said the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline, designed to move 30 billion cubic metres of gas a year from Nigeria to Morocco and now covered by a sovereign framework agreed by ECOWAS Heads of State, depends on the same conditions.
“World-class energy infrastructure can only thrive where pipelines are secure, communities are peaceful, and stakeholders work together,” Mezeh said.
Akponime Omojevwhe of the NNPC Limited Project Monitoring Office commended the Emohua zone for recording no case of infraction or vandalism during the period under review.
Traditional rulers at the meeting, including the paramount rulers of Emohua and Eleme kingdoms, said the engagement model had changed the terms of oil and gas operation in the region, and urged the company to sustain it.
