The SSOPEC leadership went to Abuja on invitation, believing that they were to meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo only to face a strong panel of the SSS which accused them of sponsoring the Warri crisis and demonstrations against the president at Uyo and Port Harcourt to compel him to sign the On-shore/Off-shore Oil Dichotomy Abrogation Bill into law.

It was learnt that the SSOPEC leaders who were angry that they were deceived into coming to Abuja on the pretext that they were to meet with President Obasanjo, denied fomenting trouble or sponsoring the Warri violence as well as any other crisis on the Niger Delta. "We told them that SSOPEC believes in one Nigeria and that the Nigeria of our expectation is one where there is justice, fair play and equity," one of the leaders told Vanguard yesterday. He added: "We told them that President Obasanjo has turned the on-shore/offshore dichotomy matter into a political matter by refusing to sign the bill and pretending that he wants to sign the bill after he had introduced something that is not tenable into it. He (Obasanjo) knows that with what he had done, the matter is going to start afresh and that the National Assembly is not even sitting as at now to consider it, yet, he is saying that he would sign the bill when the National Assembly treats it. When will that be and who is he deceivin?"

Contacted yesterday, SSOPEC scribe, Ikponmwen, confirmed that they were quizzed by the SSS over the Warri crisis and the protests by youths against Obasanjo at both Port-Harcourt and Uyo. He admitted that they were treated courteously but said our interaction with them was more of intimidation as they were subtly accusing us of things we knew nothing about.

"Government", he maintained, "must not go on pursuing shadows, it should address the fundamental issues that are causing problem in the Niger Delta and that is the inequitable distribution of our resources and margnialisation of the zone that produces the wealth that feeds the country. The issue of 13 per cent derivation and more if possible for the oil producing states is a settled matter by the constitution and we cannot be cowed into accepting any other interpretation," he asserted. Ikponmwen stated that SSOPEC would not recant its position that the people of the South-South should not vote for President Obasanjo if he refuses to sign the bill as passed by the National Assembly, adding that "whatever they do, our position is that Obasanjo do not have our support."