15/06/2021
PEACEFUL PROTEST BY FINIMA COMMUNITY AGAINST NIGERIA LNG LTD FOR REFUSAL TO ACCORD FINIMA COMMUNITY THE HOST COMMUNITY RIGHTS
ON THE 10 TH OF JUNE 2021 - COMMUNIQUÉ
On the 10th of June, 2021, the people of Finima, in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, embarked on a peaceful demonstration against Nigeria LNG Ltd., for its refusal to accord Finima Community, the Host Community Rights, as enshrined in the extant laws of Nigeria.
Rather than address the issues raised by Finima Community during the peaceful protest, NIGERIA LNG LTD, in its usual tactics of divide and rule, connived with the traditional leadership in Bonny, to hire thugs to unleash mayhem on the peaceful demonstrators, which included women and young persons. In the process of the unwarranted attacks by these sponsored thugs, several persons including women were grievously injured, and are currently receiving treatment of varying degree in hospitals in Finima and Port Harcourt.
We make bold to state that NIGERIA LNG LTD connived with the leadership in Bonny to unleash this mayhem on the peaceful people of Finima Community, whose only crime was that, they were demanding for their legitimate rights under the law. It was surprising that the sponsored hooligans came in their numbers in vehicles, including the vehicle of the Bonny Youth Federation and motorbikes; Wielding dangerous weapons including guns, machetes, stones, iron rods, woods spiked with nails at the Buoye Omuso Circle (corrupted as LNG Roundabout) in Finima, etc.
Several videos show the thugs explaining their mission in Finima and under whose instruction they came, especially in a viral video one Emmanuel Fine-country, the Chairman of Bonny Youth Federation who was one of the people that led the attack in company of Sonny Mannila Pepple, Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the Palace of the Amayanabo of Bonny and Dagogo Fanyeofori Jumbo (Opumingi), when asked if the Amanyanabo is aware of their mission to Finima, he answered in the affirmative. Surprisingly, as of today, four days after the attack, the traditional leadership in Bonny have not come out to make a statement to deny the incident or condemn it.
Despite all these, Nigeria LNG Ltd, rather than facing the reality on ground and their involvement as stated above, in a statement credited to Mrs. Eyono Fatayi-Williams, its General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, after the attack on the unarmed peaceful protesters from Finima Community published the following; “we can confirm an on-going disagreement between two groups on Bonny Island, which has led to protests and blockade of some major routes”. She further stated that “NIGERIA LNG LTD wishes to state that as a good corporate citizen, it applies the principle of fairness and inclusiveness in engaging with its esteemed stakeholders. The company has always considered all stakeholders in the community as trusted partners and continues to maintain this position. NIGERIA LNG LTD remains fully committed to sustainable development in the kingdom, hinged on active community participation to drive initiatives and projects that positively impact the lives of the community”.
Nothing can be more fallacious than this statement of arrogance, divide and rule, lies, deceit and outright misinformation. It is for the reason of setting the records straight that we put up this clarification.
NIGERIA LNG LTD, as an entity, has always been known to be economical with the truth, especially in its dealings with Finima, its host community. The above statement credited to Mrs. Eyono Fatai-Williams is to say the least false and deceptive.
We expected that NIGERIA LNG LTD would have shown some level of integrity, and not by making such clearly false and misleading statement. NIGERIA LNG LTD knew very well that the people of Finima Community were going to protest against it, they were subtly informed, and anticipated the peaceful protest, hence they had enough time to connive with the detractors of Finima Community to unleash the attack on unarmed peaceful protesters.The protest of Finima community against NIGERIA LNG LTD was for denying Finima Community - the Host Community Rights, marginalization and mistreatment as enshrined and codified in the NOGICD Act of 2010 and the NCDMB Community Content Guideline (CCG).
The Community Leaders set up the Finima Capacity Development Committee (FCDC) in 2014, to drive the process of benefiting from the NOGICD Act and the CCG which Nigeria LNG has denied Finima community over the years. From 2014 till date, FCDC has tried to interface with Nigeria LNG Ltd on several occasions without much success. With the coming on stream of the Train 7 project, FCDC and Finima Community intensified efforts and mounted pressure on Nigeria LNG Ltd through letters and petitions to various government agencies and ministries. Yet, Nigeria LNG remained adamant.
On the first day of January 2021, FCDC on behalf of Finima Community placed a protest banner at the Buoye Omuso Circle, (also called LNG Roundabout). The protest banner became a serious warning to Nigeria LNG Ltd that if nothing concrete was done, the community will protest against it. The officials of the Company led by Mrs. Eyono Fatayi-Williams herself did all it could for the protest banner to be removed and as a palliative for the banner to be removed, the Nigeria LNG wrote a letter to our community leaders to resolve all the issues leading to the placement of the banner. In fact, in Nigeria LNG’s letter of January 15th 2021, it stated thus, ‘‘…We will be meeting with you over the next days to commence this dialogue for the benefit of all.’’
After a period of over two months of inaction by the Nigeria LNG Ltd, it dawned on Finima community that the company has reneged on its promise to resolve the issue yet again. It became obvious that NIGERIA LNG LTD does not want to, and has made up its mind not to accord Finima Community the host community rights. This deceit on the part of NIGERIA LNG LTD prompted FCDC and the Community to commence more rounds of petitions against NIGERIA LNG LTD to various government agencies including the security agents.
We wrote petitions to the Nigerian Police from the divisional level to the Inspector General of Police, the DSS, from the Bonny Command to the Rivers State Command, the Joint Task force in Bonny LGA, the chairman of Bonny LGA, the Nigeria Content and Development Management Board (NCDMB), the Hon. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, the Rivers State Ministry of Employment Generation and Manpower Development, the Ministry
of Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, the House of Reps Committee on Host Community and so on. All the petitions stated above were not treated as they should have been because of the influence of NIGERIA LNG LTD. It was as a result of the above that the people of the Community embarked on a peaceful protest to bring home their demands.
It was as a result of the above that, on the 10th of June 2021, the people of Finima marched out in their numbers to PEACEFULLY protest against Nigeria LNG Ltd for refusing to accord Finima Community the Host community rights as contained in the NOGICD Act of 2010 and the NCDMB Community Content Guideline (CCG) 2017. Finima Community in the protest demanded for the full implementation of the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as codified in the NOGICD Act and the CCG.
Finima Community did not create the law as stated above, but since the law is there, all we asked was for the provisions of the law to be implemented by NIGERIA LNG LTD. The various inscriptions on placards and banners attest to the fact that the sole mission of Finima Community was the demand and actualization of the host community rights from Nigeria NIGERIA LNG LTD.
While Finima people were peacefully - demonstrating and dancing - unarmed at the Industrial Area (IA) gate of Nigeria LNG Ltd (as the various videos of the protest shows), Nigeria LNG Ltd working with the traditional institution in Bonny sponsored hoodlums, armed with guns, machetes, clubs, rods, planks and other weapons.
These miscreants were led by the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the Palace of the Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom, Sunny Manila Pepple, the Bonny Integrated Recruitment Center (BIRC) chairman, Dagogo Jumbo alias Opumingi, and the Bonny Youth Federation (BYF) leader, Emmanuel Fine-country to attack Finima people at the Buoye Omuso Circle. The hooligans destroyed vehicles parked at the parking lot of the Circle. They burnt a Haice bus belonging to the Finima Youth Congress (FYC) that was parked. They destroyed and looted stores at the parking lot as the videos of their nefarious actions show. They shot and injured innocent, harmless by-passers and peaceful protesters, many of whom were rushed to hospitals in Finima and Port Harcourt for treatment.
It is therefore mischievous, misleading, deceptive, and irresponsible for NIGERIA LNG LTD to describe the peaceful Finima community protest against it on 10th of June 2021, as a “disagreement between two groups on Bonny Island” when evidence abound that NIGERIA LNG LTD. and the Bonny Kingdom traditional institution sponsored the attack on peaceful Finima Community protesters. The people of Finima who took part in the peaceful protest cannot be described as a group, but should be rightly described as “Finima Community – the Host Community and Landlord. NIGERIA LNG LTD should be bold enough to own up to the root cause of the protest and to the fact that it was a peaceful protest by an unarmed good and peace-loving people of Finima demanding for their legal rights.
For those that do not know, let us put it on record that NIGERIA LNG LTD is sited on Finima land and all negotiations prior to the siting and construction of both NIGERIA LNG LTD’s Industrial and Residential areas were done exclusively with the leadership of Finima. We challenge any person, persons, or group of persons that has evidence to the contrary, to please come forward with same, and not to be peddling false information on social media for the gullible to believe. Again, we would not want to join issues with some illiterate, uninformed, dim-witted, boot licking people that have become half-baked historians on
social media, spewing garbage in the form of history. For the benefit of those that seek the truth, the history of Finima is well documented in several books, including:
The Trading States of the Oil Rivers by G. I. Jones, published in 1963.
Chronicle of Grand Bonny by Professor E. J. Alagoa, published in 1972.
Webber Intelligent Report, 1936.
Memoirs of the Late Captain Hugh Crow of Liverpool 1838.
Meanwhile, we have resolved, and do hereby suspend all dealings and cooperation with Nigeria LNG Ltd until further notice.
We call on Nigeria LNG to obey the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, if indeed she is a good corporate citizen, as claimed. One thing is absolutely sure and that is: Finima Community will not rest until the NOGICD Act and the CCG are implemented.
Signed by:
Aseme-Warialabo Inima Dickson Brown
(Chairman)
Aseme-Warialabo Airigha Christopher Brown (Secretary)
-Tamunotonye Martins Brown
-Victoria Ere Amapu sibidabo
-Dappa Brown
-Asa-awo Sibidabo
Charles Isobonye Brown
Chairman, Finima Youth Congress (FYC)
