Relocation: Ijaw youths restate ultimatum to IOCs, plans protest

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), has stated that it will not withdraw its 90- day ultimatum to the In­ternational Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta re­gion to relocate their operational headquarters to the area, threaten­ing a nationwide protest on the ex­piration of the ultimatum.

IYC expressed worries over the continuous delay in the relo­cation of IOC’s cooperate head of­fices to the oil rich Niger Delta.

Speaking in Port Harcourt, the factional president of IYC, Barr. Roland Oweil­aemi Pereotubo, said the 90-day ul­timatum dated 12 July 2017 was issued to oil companies following the directives by the then Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, that all IOCs should relocate their oper­ational headquarters to the Niger Delta.

Pereotubo noted that the ul­timatum was in line with the instruction of the presidency, but expressed dissatisfaction over the non-compliance by the compa­nies.

He stressed that Council may be forced to take another line of action at the expiration of the ultimatum which expires on the first week of October 2017 since the directive from the Presidency is be­ing treated with levity.

Barr. Oweilaemi maintained that the absence of the operational head­quarters of the multinational com­panies is affecting development in oil and gas producing communi­ties, noting that a number of grad­uates have remained unemployed resulting in youths’ restiveness.

The IYC boss said, “We have given the IOCs 90-day ultimatum as at 12 July which will likely expire on or October 12. I am not impressed, I need to hear from the IOCs be­fore the expiration of the 90-days and we will continue to appeal un­til they move.

“You will agree with me that the 90 days that the Ijaw youths gave is a follow up to the directive during the Presidential visit to the Niger Delta by Prof Yemi Osinbajo that IOCs should immediately relocate to Niger Delta region because it will address unemployment and youth restiveness in the region.

“I wonder how somebody that wants to do business in a re­gion will want to violate the direc­tive of the Presidency. We may do further things to press down our demands. We will have a peaceful protest at the expiration of the ulti­matum to ensure that the IOCs re­locate to Niger Delta because they are important to us; they are im­portant to the government.”

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