The House of Representatives has urged the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company to suspend the planned auction of oil mining license 11.
The call was sequel to a Motion of Urgent Public Importance moved by Hon Victor Danzaria during plenary in Abuja.
The House also mandated the Committee on Petroleum Upstream to investigate the planned auction among other matters and report back in four weeks.
” The House notes that the oil fields under OML 11 were formerly operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company SPDC joint venture and has laid idle since Shell was forced out of Ogoni Land in 1993. It also notes that by a Court of Appeal judgment of 16 August 2021, the SPDC joint venture lost its right to renewal of the operating license,” the motion reads.
The House was worried that there are unresolved issues between the government and the host communities of Ogoni in Rivers state, that are currently fueling the existence and restiveness among the people.
” It is also worried of an alleged under the covert arrangements to auction OML 11 assets to the Sahara Energy Resource Limited for a paltry sum of 250 million dollars as against the one billion dollars offered by SPDC Limited,” it said.
The lawmaker raised concerns on the need to urgently clarify and resolve issues associated with the planned auction among other matters.
