Ijaw youths warn Ondo State over oil field

In another potentially explosive situation, `The Guardian' Egbema Ijaw youths warned the Ondo State government on Sunday to steer clear of the Opuoma oil field because, they said, it belonged to Delta State to which a proposed five billion naira royalty was to be paid. Under the banner of the Egbema Youth Vanguard, `The Guardian' reported on Monday, the Ijaws said during a news conference in Lagos that the oil fields were located within the Warri division of the Delta State and not in Ondo. "It is on record that Tsekelewu and Opuama are both Ijaw communities on the western end of Warri North Local government, sharing a common boundary with the Ilaje-Ugbo of Ondo State," Joel Bisma, the group's president, said. He added that the instrument which established the old Warri Divisional council in 1955 listed Egbema Local Council as one of seven in the Warri division. The newspaper reported that on 16 August, the Ondo State government urged the Federal government to pay the oil royalty as a share of the oil revenue that accrued from the field. Bisma warned that unless there was intervention the dispute could degenerate into another crisis in the periodically volatile area.