Protesters from the riverine community of Ogwu Ikpele in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State have shut down 12 oil wells over the alleged failure of an oil company to develop the host community, provide basic amenities, offer employment to youths and observe due diligence.

The protesting Ogwu Ikpele indigenes carried placards with inscriptions such as: “No road, no hospital, no jobs,” “Ogwu Ikpele suffers 10 years of SNEEPCO exploitation and neglect,” and “Say no to SNEEPCO breach of agreements.”

Reacting to the protest, the Traditional Prime Minister of Ogwu Ikpele Kingdom, Chief Akaka Damian Aniagboso (Odua Ukwu of Ogwu Ikpele), lamented the neglect and hardship faced by the community.

“Our oil is being explored and transferred to Niger Delta State. Some fully loaded four tanker ship of oil are being transferred each day to neighbouring states and huge revenue made from them, but the children of the community are left uneducated, empowered, and unemployed,” he said.

Earlier, the President General of Ogwu Ikpele community, Esumai Patrick Chukwudi, faulted the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

“The PIA is nothing to talk about. There is no metering that will ensure the quantity of oil being transferred, which affects the PIA. Anambra State government cannot determine the amount of oil going out from the community because they laid pipes beneath the River Niger from where they move these oils across Delta State,” he said.

“We have gas, we have crude, but the government of Anambra State cannot give account of it because they don’t know the quantity and cannot agitate that the money received from federal government is commensurate with the oil being taken out.”

He added: “The gas flare has affected our agricultural produce, especially palm trees; there is a pollution that we can’t even fish in this community and the spillage has been affecting the farm produce for the past ten years and these are what prompted the blockade.”

Contributing, a former member of the House of Representatives for Ogbaru Federal Constituency, Hon. Chuchu Onyema, said the protest was aimed at forcing dialogue.

“This blockade today was for us to stop them from work and reach a round table talk for the final time. I believe in conflict resolution, but not violent. There is Social Corporate Responsibility. We are supposed to be receiving 3 per cent of what is metred, but nothing to show of it,” he said.

Also speaking, a stakeholder who identified himself simply as Hon. Peter said: “No single person from Anambra State is employed. We have a consensus 46 agreements on employment for our youths and are still nothing to show up.

“We shut down all the wells, even the pipes they laid across Delta State, we shut it down and that is why they came for dialogue. They are doing bunkering, oil will flow under the ground through the sea across and along the patch, let them tell us what the patches are all about, we have pictorial evidences and video clips that they have patches, yet oil is moving to other states.

They want to lay another pipeline that will cross from Akwa Ibom State to Anambra State called Kwale pipeline. They came and we saw them,” he added.

In their remarks, the youth leader of Ogwu Ikpele, Aghauli Chimuanya Peter, another community leader, Dominic Anumale, and a teacher, Aghauli Chukwudi, said the community had been abandoned for years and called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo to intervene before SNEEPCO leaves Ogwu Ikpele.

In her contribution, the Woman President General, Mrs Onwuaghamadu Victoria, said this year marks ten years since SNEEPCO came into the community.

“I would say that their stay is useless to us because there’s nothing to gain, our children are not working, not to talk of the women folks. All we ask is to make life livable for us with these basic amenities in place. Our pregnant women have to travel to the town to give birth, nothing is moving and we are not happy,” she said.

As at press time, tension remained in the area, while efforts to speak with representatives of the company proved abortive, as they declined to comment. The company’s public relations officer was also not reachable. (Guardian)