Community troubles overshadows fight with the oil companies

The fighting between the Ijaws and Itsekiri has, for now, overshadowed previous attacks against oil companies in the Delta area. However, ‘The Guardian’ reported that some 133 oil communities in the Warri North, South and Southwest councils in Delta State have threatened to sue Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited if the company failed to compensate them for an oil spill last year in Idoho. The warning was contained in a letter to the company’s managing director and delivered after negotiations between the communities and the company broke down. The communities rejected Mobil’s offer of 35.87 million naira (about US $377,578) as too little. Individual, communities and cooperative societies - mainly Itsekiri - are demanding 1.71 billion naira (about US $18 million), the newspaper said. “We want the company to show some concern and seriousness so that the people will not feel neglected or marginalised in the on-going payments by the company to all the affected coastal areas of Niger Delta region,” Francis Amona-Monday, an oil consultant and spokesman for the communities, said.