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The Nigerian Federal Government has been cautioned to abolish plans of expanding oil drilling activities across the Niger Delta.
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The warning was issued by the Ijaw Publishers Forum on the grounds of environmental and economic dangers.
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The IPF lamented that the region has not benefitted much from previous oil drilling activities in the Niger Delta.
The Ijaw Publishers’ Forum (IPF) has asked the federal government to stop nursing the ambition to drill more oil wells in Niger Delta.
The warning is coming on the heels of an increase in demand for more crude supply in the country.
Nigeria to Drill 123.48 million barrels of oil in first quarter
It would be recalled that, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in a special report on Thisday Newspaper on January 4, 2025, said following the resumption of oil refining by Dangote, Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries, the country needs 123.48 million barrels for the nine Nigerian refineries in the first quarter (H1) 2025, with Dangote receiving the highest share.
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The report suggested that the country needs to undergo drilling of more oil wells to meet both foreign and domestic demands.
Reacting to the report, the IPF, in a statement signed by its National President Comrade Ozobo Austin, said the status quo remains that the Niger Delta is soaked in abject poverty and unspeakable underdevelopment.
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Ozobo emphasized that the region would no longer allow the Nigerian federal government to drill more oil in the area.
“We are saying it very unequivocally that Niger Delta will no longer wants the federal government to continue to drill more oil wells in the Niger Delta, except there should be a dialogue for the oil ownership in Niger Delta”, the group added.
It explained that “Ijaw riverine communities with countless oil wells being explored and exploited over five decades have nothing to show for it, rather there is sad reality of rejection, infrastructure decay, pollution, total darkness and untimely death of both infants and adults as a result of oil explorationanf exploitation activities by oil multinationals.”
Ozobo added that “should the federal government nurse the ambition to drill more oil wells to increase the daily oil production output in Niger Delta and the Ijaw areas, there should be a roundtable negotiation to review the extant laws of oil and gas ownership in the Niger Delta before such ideas could be considered.”
He noted that if such roundtable negotiation is not done, the federal government should look for somewhere else to look for its oil to increase its daily output and not the Niger Delta territory.
The Ijaw media council argued that in the future when the entire oil and gas are exhausted without commensurate benefits, the Ijaw area will be left abandoned like a ghost city, citing Oloibiri town as a reference point.
The IPF expressed disappointment that “up until now, natural resources like gold and bitumen in Zamfara and other northern states are regarded as private resources for the indigenes despite its high economic values.”
They argued that “if gold, iron ore, lithium, coal, granite and other natural resources in Zamfara and other northern states belong to the indigenes, then oil and gas resources in Niger Delta belong to the aboriginal people of the region.”
The group further called on governors, federal lawmakers, rights bodies, traditional rulers and other well meaning stakeholders in Niger Delta to educate the federal government to jettison the idea of drilling more oil wells in the Niger Delta region for the overall interest of both parties.
