A Statement by the Buckingham Palace Group
In every season of silence, there are voices that choose to stir storms not for truth’s sake, but for spectacle. The Buckingham Palace Group, a council of conscience and a respected regional voice for peace, equity, and responsible development in the Niger Delta, registers its deep concern and responds not out of provocation, but out of duty to clarify the recent baseless, wild, weightless, and inflammatory statement, woven with threads of misinformation, attributed to and circulated by a group calling itself the Aggrieved Freedom and directed against Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL) and His Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatse III, the revered Olu of Warri.
Unravelling the Allegations: A Response in Dignity
Ordinarily, truth has no need to shout. But when falsehood dresses itself in urgency and walks the streets seeking belief, silence becomes a betrayal of wisdom. Such allegations, steeped in ethnic provocation, seek to tarnish the reputations of individuals and institutions that have contributed meaningfully to the peace and progress of our region and must be rejected in their entirety as such, we offer the following clarifications:
1. On Marginalization of Host Communities
The claim that PINL excludes host community youths and leaders is simply untrue. PINL has consistently operated within a framework of inclusiveness, equity, and local content by maintaining active engagements with host communities through employment for all host community youths, capacity building initiatives, skills acquisition programs, and regular consultations with community leaders and stakeholders. These engagements are not whispered promises, they are public acts of accountability witnessed by local leaders, civil society, and the media; inclusion here is not a promise; it is a footprint. The claim of marginalization is not only baseless, it is blind to evidence.
2. On Alleged Bunkering Involvement
PINL’s operates under the direct instigation of federal agencies to defend and deter, not abet, vandalism and oil theft in national pipeline infrastructure. To accuse the same security contractor of enabling the very crimes it exists to combat is to misunderstand both logic and law. It is not just implausible; it is slanderous. Those who level such claims are urged to produce a single shred of verifiable evidence.
3. On Sponsoring Conflicts
Those who have walked the corridors of PINL’s peace interventions know that the company’s operational ethos is rooted in peacebuilding. From brokering dialogue to supporting reconciliation, the company is a quiet stabilizer that has invested in harmony, not hostility; building, bridging and mending. If there is any fire, it is not lit by this firm. To allege otherwise is not merely false, it is reckless. We urge restraint from voices that would prefer fire over dialogue and disruption over progress.
4. On Forceful Renaming of Communities
To rename is to wield power over memory, identity, and place and the Olu’s throne, steeped in centuries of dignified leadership, does not deal in conquest but in coexistence. PINL, as a private entity, has neither the authority nor interest in such claims. To suggest that either PINL or His Majesty, the Olu of Warri, seeks to rename Ijaw communities is to peddle a dangerous politically motivated and ethnically divisive narrative wrapped in fabrication and must be disregarded in its entirety.
5. On Territorial Claims
Territorial boundaries are not the playgrounds of corporate ambition, nor the whims of traditional reverence. They are governed by constitutional frameworks, mapped by institutions, and adjudicated by the lawful organs of state. PINL, a private infrastructure company with a defined license and operational mandate by the Federal Government, has neither sought nor claimed ownership of land be it Ijaw or otherwise. It does not, and cannot, draw boundary lines or alter land jurisdictions. To conflate technical operations with territorial ambition is not only misleading and incendiary, it gives fiction the dignity of fact and is a distortion designed not to inform but to inflame.
Our Position
We urge the public to see through the veil of propaganda and reject the divisive agenda that lies beneath it. These allegations are not the cries of justice rather they are the chants of opportunism. Their authors do not speak for the Niger Delta. They speak only for themselves. The Buckingham Palace Group stands, nonetheless, to reaffirm its unwavering support for Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Ltd whose quiet competence has strengthened national oil infrastructure. Let it be known and let history remember that PINL continues to serve the region not with theatrics, but with tangible results. Its record is written not only in ink, but in infrastructure, stability, and rising local economies. And for His Majesty, the Olu of Warri, whose reign has led not with clenched fists but with open hands and has been marked by vision, peace, and dignity in an era often overrun by noise, his throne is not in contest and his dignity does not require defence.
A Call to A Higher Standard of Conduct
We caution all public commentators to note that not every grievance deserves a megaphone. The future we seek cannot be built with suspicion as mortar and tribalism as brick. The louder we shout against our own progress, the longer we delay the dawn. Let it be remembered: the Niger Delta is not a chessboard for tribal rivalry or a battlefield of egos; it is a cradle of possibilities, a living region, home to rivers and dreams, elders and youth and all deserve better than to be pawns in a game of petty grievances.
We call on all stakeholders including traditional institutions, community leaders, youth organizations, and civil society to stand united against manipulation. Let us preserve what peace we have won, deepen the development already underway, and defend the dignity of all ethnic nationalities in our shared region. Let history not remember us as those who set fires in a season of rebuilding.
Signed
Hon. Kenny Amgbare
Public Relations Officer
Buckingham Palace Group
Hon. Festus Ederekumor
Vice President
Buckingham Palace Group
