Host communities of Oil Mining Lease (OML) 17 currently being operated by Heirs Holdings Oil and Gas Limited have threatened to shut down the company’s operations if it persists in the path of neglect of its hosts and grandstanding.    

This position was the unanimous resolution of traditional rulers, opinion leaders and other stakeholders drawn from the four local government areas hosting OML 17 at a meeting held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State, on Saturday, September 18, 2021.

They unanimously decried the continued exclusion and neglect of her indigenes by Heirs Holding Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited, which took over the management of OML 17 from multinational oil giant, Shell.

Speaking, on behalf of the stakeholders, Chairman of Traditional Rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities (TROMPCOM), His Majesty, King (Dr.) Samuel Ndiwe Amaechi, KSC, JP, who is also the Onye Ishi Agwuru of Igbo Kingdom in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State, said they were the first beneficiaries of the ecological impacts of oil exploration activities in their various communities but regretted that they have been denied access to the economic benefits therein.

He announced that they have, therefore, issued a one month ultimatum to Heirs Holding Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited to immediately initiate engagements with its host communities and begin implementation of the demands forwarded to it through their lawyers.

The traditional ruler described the large turnout of stakeholders as an indication of the people’s dissatisfaction with the undignified position that they have been relegated to by the company, noting that the company brazenly continued unabated operations on their God-given land with total disregard to their demands.

Other stakeholders at the meeting, who spoke to Kristina Reports, wondered why the company, Heirs Holding Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited has refused to engage its host communities before the commencement of operations despite several correspondences forwarded to them and the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

They, therefore, resolved, that upon expiration of the ultimatum on Sunday, October 10, 2021, the host communities will be forced to take alternative decisive actions against the company which will include mass protests, media engagements and disruption of operations until due diligence is done to the demands of the host communities.

A Communique, which was signed by the various communities and stakeholders, was issued after the meeting.

Top on the resolutions contained in the Communique was an immediate and robust engagement between the company, Heirs Holding Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited and the host communities which will produce a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that will embody the terms of relationship between the company and the host communities and must be executed before Sunday, October 31, 2021.

Efforts to reach Heirs Holding Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited or its owner and business mogul, Tony Elumelu proved abortive as at the time of this report.