Shell using JTF to force us to sign JIV report, community cries out

The last may not have been heard of the disagreement over the signing of the joint investigation visit (JIV) report of the crude oil spill that devastated Aghoro 1 community in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

Aghoro 1 community has alleged that Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) of using men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Delta Safe to force community leaders into signing the JIV report.

However, both SPDC and JTF have debunked the allegation of intimidating the community leaders to sign the report which has suffered delay due to disagreement over the area impacted by the crude oil spill on the Ramos River trunk line.

While SPDC  in the draft report said 1,114 barrels of crude oil spilled affected a total land area of 113.3 hectares at Aghoro 1 community, the community leaders claim that the impacted area was 1825 hectares.

Victor Akamu, Chairman, Community Development Committee (CDC) of Aghoro 1 alleged that SPDC in connivance with the JTF had resorted to force and intimidation over the disagreement.

Akamu had disclosed on Monday that the JTF had summoned the community leadership to Yenagoa on August 23 to force them to sign the JIV report to no avail and that the community delegation was labelled pipeline vandals and profiled into the database of the security agency.

In his words: “We were taken to a room where detailed profiles of us were taken including our fingerprints, biometric details and our photographs. We were temporarily held down for almost three hours profiling before we were eventually asked to go. I wanted to ask is it part of JTF’s job to force a community to sign a JIV report?

“Shell should stop using JTF to intimidate our community; for the past 20 years, there is no history of pipeline vandalism. This leak was due to a ruptured pipeline due to corrosion, yet they called us vandals. It is unacceptable.”
In his reaction, Bamidele Odugbesan, SPDC’s Media Relations Manager denied use of force to compel its host communities to sign the report saying, “Yes, there are issues with the JIV report. The representatives of Aghoro 1 community did not agree with a portion of the JIV report but we have not used force, SPDC does not coerce parties to sign JIV reports.”

JTF Commander, Apochi Suleiman, a rear admiral, dismissed allegations of intimidation while explaining that the security agency entered into the crisis in a bid to encourage both parties to adopt dialogue in resolving their differences to avert breach of peace.

Suleiman stated: “We conduct our duties in compliance to our rules of engagement. We invited the parties to mediate and encourage them to dialogue and use the established channels of resolving conflicts.

“I told them to resolve their differences on the negotiating table so that the operation is not disrupted. Our mandate is to safeguard oil facilities and we do not want the disagreement to degenerate further.

“We got reports that some persons were disrupting ongoing repairs of the ruptured pipelines and that was why some people were profiled. I was emphatic that we cannot tolerate anyone taking the law into his hands.”