The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has warned that any backdoor joint venture partnership between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Sahara Energy will not be acceptable to the Ogoni people.

MOSOP stated that any attempt to “foist Sahara Energy on the Ogoni people may lead to a major upheaval which will dampen MOSOP’s current efforts at achieving a mutually beneficial settlement of the conflicts”.

President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke who made the position known at the end of a meeting with the leadership of the Council of Ogoni Leaders of Thought (COLT) weekend in Bori, Khana local government area of Rivers state warned against any maneuvers to foist Sahara Energy on the Ogoni people and throw Ogoni into crisis.

“MOSOP rejects any backdoor move to transform the FTSA between Sahara Energy and the West African Gas Limited (WAGL, an affiliate of the NNPCL) into a Joint Venture operatorship. The Ogoni people have maintained that the financial and technical services agreement, FTSA, between Sahara and NNPC is not acceptable to us and we will strongly resist any move by the NNPC to force Sahara Energy on us by any means whatsoever” Nsuke said.

“We have laid down our conditions for a peaceful resolution of the Ogoni issue. The government should look into those demands and we are ready to make the necessary compromises on mutually beneficial terms,” he added.

Nsuke called on the Government to immediately halt Sahara Energy’s moves to enter into a joint venture agreement with the NNPC over OML 11 without the input and consideration of the position of MOSOP and the Ogoni people, noting that Sahara’s penchant to force itself on Ogoni is a threat to the peace of the Ogoni and the Niger Delta region.

“The position of MOSOP is critical in discussions on oil production in Ogoni because we stopped Shell’s operations in the first place. Ogoni made enormous sacrifices to get Shell out of the fields. If the NNPC attempts to force Sahara Energy on us without consideration for our demands, it may lead to another phase of crisis.

“We will therefore strongly advise against any attempt to kill our people through some backdoor moves to force Sahara Energy on us without consideration for our position on the issue”

“We urge the Nigerian government to give peace a chance and accept discussions on the recommendations we have made in the interest of peace in our land. We do not want anything to take away our peace and the NNPC should spare us that trouble.

“We have proposed a pathway to address the Ogoni problem and that option should be given a chance. Our proposal calls for the operationalization of the Ogoni Development Authority (the ODA)” he said.

Sahara Energy had, during the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari, entered into an FTSA with WAGL in a deal which was not transparent and did not pass through due process. MOSOP rejected the move. Sahara later attempted to acquire OML 11 through the National Assembly and was blocked. (Vanguard)

Update news