Diversion of Shell’s ₦1.2bn rental revenue cause violence in Delta

Chiefs and elders of Ogulagha in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to help to put an end to attacks on homes by hoodlums, said to have been sponsored in the community.

The community’s Council of Chiefs and Elders, led by Chief Peter Tuasinde, noted that the hoodlums had burnt down properties worth over ₦2 billion belonging to natives with dynamites, guns, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons over the last few weeks.

In a petition addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari by the counsel to the Council, Chief Felix Edewor, a copy of which was made available to Sunday Vanguard, alleged that the hoodlums were sponsored by some prominent natives of the community.

The petition, copied to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, and the National Assembly, traced the genesis of the crisis rocking the community to the disagreement amongst leaders over alleged misappropriation of ₦1.2 billion community development money.

It said Ogulagha’s slide into crisis began after the death of a former community leader, Solomon Prebor, amid allegations of fraud and the attendant leadership tussle.

The petition recalled that Prebor was the Community Executive Committee Chairman accused of diverting the 1.2 billion naira paid to the community by Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, as rental revenue.

It explained that upon the discovery of the alleged diversion, the Council of Chiefs and Elders, led by him, raised the alarm in a petition, dated February 6, 2018, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Benin Zonal Division and a fact-finding Committee instituted in line with the Constitution of the community.

Consequently, the Prebor cabinet and the community’s Advisory Council, according to the petition, were dissolved while an Interim Executive Council was constituted under the leadership of Edward Igogo.

“Amid the community tussle, during one of Captain Prebor’s trips following his removal from office, he and three others were involved in a fatal accident in which he died, a development which provoked his angry supporters to begin unleashing terror on the community”, it said.

The petition also alleged that the deputy governor of Delta State, Chief Otuaro Kingsley, may have been on the side of one of the parties to the conflict in Ogulagha, asking the authorities to prevail on him to use his office to ensure amicable settlement.

“In the course of this crisis, over 60 down houses and over 10 cars have been burnt to ashes”, the petition said.

“Community leaders and others affected are homeless and also denied access to the community by the hoodlums.

“The men of the Nigeria Police sent to Ogulagha to maintain law and order are believed to be doing the bidding of the sponsors of the mayhem.

“We are by this letter begging you to intervene in this matter to avoid total breakdown of law and order, and further bloodshed, in Ogulagha and also ensure that the culprits are brought to book”.

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