ENERGY
Last week, youth leaders of several ethnic groups in Nigeria converged on Abuja to pressure the authorities to take appropriate action against Shell Petroleum Development Company over alleged underhand dealings in the course of carrying out their operations in Nigeria. Emmanuel Addeh writes that it was one of the few instances that the country’s youth leaders appeared to have spoken with one voice on such a matter of national importance
The placard-wielding, tough-talking horde of youths, stormed the seat of power last Tuesday had one mission in mind: compensation for the aggrieved and sanctions for the alleged culprits.
By Emmanuel Addeh
Several ethnic youth leaders, including the Arewa Consultative Youth Movement, Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo Youth Movement, Niger Delta Youth Council, Oduduwa Youths and Middle Belt Youth Council, have called for sanctions for any organisation sabotaging the country through the diversion of crude oil.
Speaking during a press conference in Abuja yesterday, members of the Council of Ethnic Youth Leaders of Nigeria, specifically demanded that the federal government should sanction Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Limited and its sister companies in Nigeria, for its complicity in the alleged diversion of 16 million barrels of crude oil.
They noted that the breach occurred at the Bonny Oil Terminal through the use of a manipulated and unapproved metering system, thereby understating the volume of crude oil which was pumped to the terminal.