WARRI/Nigeria: Delta State Deputy Governor, Deacon Kingsley Otuaro, has expressed displeasure over the nonattendance of officials of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in a tripartite meeting with the state government and Ogulagha Community in the state.
Otuaro, who stated this at the Government House Annex in Warri, adjoined the meeting for the nonattendance of the expected officials of the oil company in the meeting.
He maintained that the state government was committed to resolving the issue between the Ogulagha Community and SPDC.
Otuaro stated that the absence of the expected officials of the SPDC would affect the resolution that would be reached if the meeting was not adjoined.
According to Otuaro, “l am particularly displeased that we don’t have all the people we needed to have to deal with this matter decisively. I had quite a lot of conversation with separate set of people and I expected that they would be here.”
He acknowledged the the capacity of those representing SPDC, saying that he needed those who had the history to be able to handle the issues.
“I know they stand for their company and are in every way strong and capacitated to deal with the issues as it were, but it is not a fresh issue, it has long history and when you have an issue that has along history, it is expected that those that have been fused with the history are supposed to be an integral part of the resolution of the problem,” he explained.
Continuing, the deputy governor said that “I expected Mr. Ahmed to be here and it is unfortunate he is not here. I am sure he was reached that today, we are having this meeting.”
Otuaro disclosed that his expectations was to have a pragmatic approach to the issue at stake and resolve it amicably.
“I expected a situation we don’t come together and begin to generate the normal issues of crash in oil price, normal issues of phenomenon of downsizing that characterised the oil industry. I wanted to be more pragmatic,” he added.
