An Ijaw rights group, Movement for the Survival of the Izon Ethnic Nationality (MOSIEND), has expressed concerns over Federal Government’s revocation of marginal oil fields licence , Oil Mining Lease (OML) 46 asset in favour of Bayelsa.

Recall that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on April 6, 2020 announced the revocation of OML 46 alongside 10 out of the 13 marginal fields licenses it issued to indigenous oil firms to build capacity and promote Nigerians’ participation in the oil sector.

The OML 46 asset held by Bayelsa government located within onshore swamps in Bayelsa was won in 2013 through a bidding process conducted by the DPR was reportedly revoked for being inactive.

MOSIEND President, Mr. Kenneth Tonjo-West, made the expression in Yenagoa the state capital, during the inauguration of additional members into the group’s executive council.

He said it was unfair for the Federal Government to seize the fields given to state without genuine and verifiable reasons, adding that the oilfield has gone into test production after full development and was ready for commercial production.

“It was this oil field that gave Bayelsa the right of oil prospecting licence, it was also based on it that the state established the Bayelsa Oil Company Limited, and they have produced about 1,000 barrels of crude for evaluation and hence the position that field has remained dormant is false,” he said.

Tonjo-West said that the call had become more crucial because some states in the country were already in control of resources deposited in their land.

“We have borne brunt of oppression and marginalization for more than half a century, there is no commensurate development in our land following the discovery of oil in commercial quantity,” he said.

The MOSIEND president also used the occasion to condemn the breakdown of law and order associated with the EndSARS protest across the country, saying: “We support peaceful agitation.

“While we condemn the hijack of the protest by hoodlums to perpetrate crime, we wish to say that it was wrong for security agents to attack the protesters,” he said.

Also speaking, MOSIEND’s Chairman, Elders Council, Mr. Timi Ogoriba, said the Ijaw nation would continue to move against oppression and injustice.

Ogoriba, MOSIEND’s Pioneer President, said that the group and other rights outfits in the Niger Delta region would not fold their arms and watch the people suffer in the face of abundant natural resources.

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