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THE Leader of Ogoni Liberation Initiative, Rev. Douglas Fabekee, has said that the community will never allow Shell Petroleum Development Company to return to their land.
Fabekee said this while speaking at Bori, during an event organised by the OLI.
The event was organised following the judgement of the Court of Appeal that handed over the management of Oil Mining License (OML) 11 to the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.
Fabekee, in a statement on Monday, recalled that an Appeal Court sitting in Abuja had upturned the August 23, 2019 ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja which held that the SPDC was entitled to the renewal of the Lease on OML 11.
He added, “In the ruling, the Appellate Court held that the Minister of Petroleum Resources had the discretion whether or not to renew the OML 11 Lease in favour of SPDC.
“The court further held that the minister rightly exercised his discretion in awarding the OML 11 Lease to NPDC, a subsidiary of the NNPC.”
Fabekee, who stated that the people of Ogoni would never allow Shell into their territory, express happiness over a Court of Appeal judgment that was in favour.
He said, “I want to thank President Muhammadu Buhari for providing us with a peaceful country and for us to gather here today.
“Under no circumstance will Shell return to Ogoni. Ogoni people are happy with the Appeal Court judgement that handed OML 11 to NNPC.
“We are here today for two occasions. First is to celebrate the Appeal Court judgement against Shell, which have taken the OML 11 licence from Shell and given it to NPDC, a subsidiary of NNPC.
“Secondly, we are today demonstrating to the Federal Government of Nigeria that the Ogoni people will no longer work with Shell.”
The NPDC Managing Director, Mohammed Zara, in his response to the comments of the Ogoni leaders, expressed his commitment to work with the leadership of OLI for the development of communities in Ogoni land in Rivers State.
