The Surveyor General of the Federation (SGOF) Abduganiyu Adeyemi Adebomehin has invited Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Sterling Oil and Rumuewhor Community to a high-level strategic fact finding meeting held at the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation headquarters today.
The meeting was called based on the directive from Federal Government following the petition received from Rumuewhor Community, Emohua Local Government Area , River State over alleged neglect and damage to the community by Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company Limited.
SGOF emphasized that the gathering reflects President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s renewed commitment to ensuring lasting peace between the oil companies and their hosts.
Adebomehin said in his opening remarks “All the correspondents and letters should be compiled together, what anyone has written to anyone, and it will be handed over to our legal unit who will in turn send it to ONSA, it is after then the ONSA will have the right to ask questions on some issues, we have to look at the position of the law, I am very sure when all the facts are on ground Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company Limited, would be invited, ours is purely on fact finding.”
Mrs Ademola Abiola, the Assistant Legal Adviser in OSGF said “The Petroleum Industry ACT (PIA) mandates oil companies to carry out some responsibilities, there are clearly define role under the PIA act and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) ought to monitor the activities of the settlers, government has to monitor so that he right of indigene is protected, in the response of stallion oil they are yet to indicate that they have complied with all the provisions, though we cannot adjudge them at this point to be guilty.“
The Director of Energy Security at ONSA in his submission said “We need all information to know who signed for what, how did they start their operation, we need NUPRC as a regulatory body to tell us about some certain issues on the community development fund , if there is division in the community NUPRC should be able to tell us, until we have information at ONSA, the first thing is that we need all the information because of the attachment they are mentioning here we need all, so as to give us the opportunity to know who to ask questions and all of that, it is a simple matter we have regulatory body, we have those who are supposed to be the leader of the community and those who are to interface with the operator. When we get all information, the oil company can then be invited after ONSA has done all their investigation if the right of the community is violated”.
Ezehow Prophet Azundah who spoke on behalf of the community said “The company has been operating for three years. They have found oil in large commercial quantities and gas. Also, the injustice has been suffered as the Local Content Act has not been followed regarding the employment of indigenes of the land. The individual that was employed does not even earn more #80,000-#100,000 thereabout. “
He said “recently, one of the trucks of Sterling Global Oil destroyed about nine electricity poles in the community and the CDC that intervened were dealt with by soldiers., they use soldiers to intimidate us.”
Adding that they have written letters to the Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff regarding how the military is being used to maltreat them.
In his last remarks he prayed to the Surveyor-General of the Federation to intervene so that there can be peace in the land and for them to have their rights restored.
In his letter to SGOF, the Group Managing Director of Stallion Oil, A.O. Chukwueke said “the allegations contained in the petition are unfounded and unsupported by evidence as the company operates in strict compliance with all relevant statutory and regulatory provisions.”
Signed
Henry David
Head, Information and Public Relations
OSGOF
5TH November, 2025
