Posted by David Hart on
The Finima community which has been insisting its share of the 40% royalty be paid to it directly Tuesday sealed the gate leading into the premises of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas company, NLNG.
* says company must pay community 40% royalties
* refuses to allow mediation byLG council chairman
* paralyzes all production activities at Finima site
The Finima community which has been insisting its share of the 40% royalty be paid to it directly Tuesday sealed the gate leading into the premises of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas company, NLNG.
As a result of the action, no one could either go in or come out from the plant that is championing Nigeria's oil sector diversification plan.
David Hart reports that the youths who conducted themselves peacefully however refused to entertain the mediation efforts of the council led by its Chairman Wari Senibo LongJohn and vowed they would not leave the site until their requests are met by the management of the company..
At present, the company pays 40% royalty the entire Bonny kingdom, something Finima youths say they are uncomfortable with, given the fact that they are the ones who are the company's direct landlords.
For quite a long time, there have been disagreements over the issue of the 40% royalty between the rest of Bonny and Finima.
Finima wants the company to pay its share of the money directly to them from source, a move that the Bonny people do not appear to like.
The Finima community had bee resettled many years ago to make way for the multi-billion dollar project.
As at the time of going to press, we could not confirm if the Finima youths eventually quit the gate of the company.
When they refused to listen to the pleas and assurances of the council chairman, they however said they would wait for their chief to come to the site.
Efforts to reach David Hart on phone to obtain an update failed due largely to network problems.
Hart had promised to call back with more information but he never did.