The Paramount Ruler of Ogale Community in Eleme Local Government Area, Rivers State, Chief Godwin Bebe-Okpabi has expressed confidence that the community will be victorious in the legal battle ongoing in London between the community and the Shell Petroleum Development Company of. Nigeria Ltd, SPDC.
The community had dragged the oil giant to a London court following the alleged failure of Nigeria courts to dispassionately dispense justice in the matter where the community is claiming damages running into several billions of dollars over pollution of the ecosystem in the community.
The United Nations Environmental Program, (UNEP) investigators had during their field work in the community said that the Nsisioken area in the community had a concentration of Benzene causing cancer which is the worst the world over.
In an interview, Chief Okpabi, one time Commissioner for Special Duties in the state said he recently came back from London where the suit against Shell is ongoing and expressed optimism that at the end of the long drawn legal battle Ogale would come out victorious
He said “I came back from London three days ago and I have addressed my people. I told them to remain calm. The shenanigans of Shell will soon be over and we.will win”
Meanwhile, the youth president of Ogale, Comrade Noble Nworlu has said that the youths of the area are in full support of the resumption of oil exploration in Ogoniland.
The youth leader w ho noted that previous efforts to restart the exploration had failed, wondered how President Tinubu was able to get the process to the point of community engagement.
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“You know that this program today is like a miracle because there have been so many other discussions, but nobody knows how the president was able to do this one and it is yielding results. And so everybody is keying into the results that is showing. It is visible so the Eleme people will not be an exception
” We are all saying the same thing. We want the oil resumption. The oil cannot be in the ground and we are hungry. We want the oil to be exploited. We are seeing the the federal government has different approach this time and we want to believe that the approach is going to benefit the people of Ogoni. We want to believe the approach is going to be different from what we had before and that our people are going to smile at last”, he enthused.
The youth leader urged the youths to equip themselves with the requisite skills awaiting the boom the expected oil resumption would bring.
“So the youths of Eleme should take this as another opportunity to get themselves engaged. Some people can even upgrade from what they are doing presently to something better
“Those that have value should go and add more value because it is only when you have value that you can attract money. So they should prepare themselves, go for more training,learn more skills so that when this process start s properly, they will be meaningfully engaged “
