PUNCH NEWS

LEADER of former warlords in Odidi Federated Community, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, Don Banky, has called on the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to revoke the oil mining licence given to Neconde Energy Company Limited to operate OML 42.

Banky’s appeal was contained in a statement he personally signed on behalf of the former militants in Odidi, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri on Monday.

He declared that the Odidi Flow Station would remain shut until the needful was done to address the lingering issues.

Banky maintained that the letter to the President to revoke the oil mining licence given to the Chief Executive Officer of Neconde Energy Company Limited, Mr Ernest Obiejesi, had become imperative in view of the level of underdevelopment in Odidi and other host communities since the firm took over the facility.

According to him, Neconde’s only visible agenda “is to impoverish the people as there are too many unresolved and lingering issues between the host communities and Neconde Energy Company Limited in the facility.”

Banky also called on the President to order the urgent relocation of the floating dockyard back to Gbaramatu Kingdom in the Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State

The statement also urged Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, as chief security officer of the state, not to see their actions as disrespectful, noting that they “have been pushed to the wall” by Neconde Energy Company Limited and were left with no other choice but to fight for their economic survival as a people.