IYC Demands 70% of Modular Refineries Licences

• Gives IOCs 90-day ultimatum to relocate to N’Delta

Tobi Soniyi

Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has demanded that

70 per cent of licences to operate modular refineries should be issued to people of Niger Delta extraction.

The council in a statement signed by its president, Pereotubo Oweilaemi‎ and released thursday, said the federal government appeared to favour people from the three major tribes while issuing licences to operate the refineries.

It said: “Shockingly, about the 57 of the modular refineries licences so far released by the federal government; no Niger Deltan is seen to have been given any licence to operate the modular refineries.

“Truth is, as a youth council we are not unaware that the federal government will in the end sluggishly bequeath some licences to our people as ‘second-hand’ operators instead of making them first-line operators like the ‘WAZOBIANS.’”
The council said that it would not allow other tribes to operate modular refineries unless 70 per cent of the licences were given to people from the Niger Delta.

The statement further read:‎ “We will resist anyone or any government that believes it can trample on the peoples of the Niger Delta region and forcefully share their resources to themselves and cronies.
“We will not accept any second-hand modular refineries license in the region.

“We have also learnt the art and we have mastered the modus operandi of the so-called modular refineries and we therefore propose that; we should have 70 per cent of the licences for smooth operation of the refineries in our region.”

The council said that the people of Niger Delta complied with the current federal government’s directive on modular refineries with the hope that they would also play an integral role in the policy formulation and implementation as well as operation of the process.
“But sadly, the reverse has been the case as we speak,” the council added.

IYC also gave international oil companies (IOC) a 90-day ultimatum to relocate their headquarters to the Niger Delta.
It said: ‎”We have resolved to be patient with the IOCs and the insincere federal government of Nigeria to do the needful by directing the IOCs to relocate their operational headquarters to the Niger Delta region within 90 days counting from July 12, 2017.

“We will have no other option but to stop all oil and gas operation in the region non-violently should this fail. Be rest assured that we have the capacity and capability to do so, but we will heed any sane truce as long as it will develop our people.”

The council said it ‎was aware that Lagos State Government benefitted greatly from proceeds of the tenement fee paid to it.

It further said: “We are also aware that the current Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo is a full-fledged Lagosian and we therefore doubt his sincerity on the call for the relocation of the IOCs to Niger Delta region.

“We now use this medium to call on the acting president’s attention to show his sincerity of purpose on his earlier directive on the IOCs.”