A Coalition of local and International Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called on President Bola Tinubu to halt all divestment requests from International Oil Corporations (IOCs) in the Niger Delta, including Shell, Total, ENI and other IOCs with similar plans until significant environmental and social liabilities associated with operations in the region are adequately addressed.

The formation group also charged the President to sustain the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) rejection of Shell’s request to sell its remaining shares in the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to the Renaissance consortium.

The call is also extended to other IOCs, including TotalEnergies, which is also attempting to sell its stakes in SPDC and other Nigerian onshore oil assets.

The pivotal and urgent demands were made in a statement jointly signed by 120 representatives of CSOs across the world, including 12 Diaries, Diaspora Climate Platform (Belgium), 350 Hawaii (USA), AbibiNsroma Foundation (Ghana), Activists for Climate Justice Initiative Uganda (Uganda), ADDEA, African Centre for Climate, Energy and Sustainable Development (Burkina Faso), African Initiative on Food Security and Environment (Uganda), Aksil for gender, social and ecological justice (Indonesia), Alabama Interfaith Power and Light (USA), Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments and Amnesty International Nigeria (Nigeria), among others.

According to the coalition, any approval of Shell and Total’s requests would weaken Nigeria’s regulatory independence, ignore the interests of the Niger Delta communities, jeopardise the environmental and social well-being of the region for generations to come, and undermine Nigeria’s sovereignty.

MEANWHILE, a body of Niger Delta indigenes has urged the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to reverse the 2024 licensing and 2022/23 Mini Bid Round for oil blocs in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.

The stakeholders insisted that the process was discriminatory and unlawful and violated the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the Commission’s own operational guideline.

In a letter addressed to NUPRC’s Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, the stakeholders issued a seven-day notice to NUPRC to reverse the decision.

Counsel to the aggrieved Niger Deltans, Blessing Agbomhere, of Blessing Agbomhere and Partners, notified the Commission of his client’s intention to begin legal proceedings against it if at the end of the seven days’ notice the Commission fails to carry out a fresh bidding process for the oil blocs in conformity with the fundamental principles of fairness, equity, and inclusivity.

The legal firm listed its clients to include, Undiandeye Akonfe, James Okeati, Victor Akposeseye Okiri, Fortune Nakoro, Kenneth Anyanwu, Okwara Idika, Akpan Edem, Otetubi Tolulope and Olali Solomon, who, it said, are critical stakeholders who believe in the peace and prosperity of the region as patriotic indigenes of the Nigeria Delta.