Protesting Isoko community adamant, blocks Agip’s access road

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Indigenes of Idheze community in Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, have vowed to continue with their protest against alleged neglect by Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) Limited.

Members of the community, especially women, had started the protest on July 6 by barricading the road leading to the oil wells being operated by NAOC.

They said until their demands were met, they would not allow the company to have access.

They had already spent 19 days in the bush without any response from NAOC.

The people therefore vowed to continue with the protest and blockage of the company’s access to the oil wells in Idheze community.

Giving update on the protest, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Idheze community, Mr. Power Okpure, said the attitude of NAOC has vindicated the community which insisted that the Italian firm is only interested in getting oil and gas without factoring in the development and welfare of the community.

“It is unfortunate that after 19 days of protest, NAOC has refused to accede to our demands and we are prepared to sustain the agitation which is our right and legal obligation.

“Before we embarked on the protest, we wrote several letters to the company, which it ignored.

“The Delta State government invited them twice to discuss our complaints, they failed to honour the invitations.

“And when we began the protest on July 6, the Delta State Commissioner for Oil and Gas invited us to a meeting with NAOC officials on July 11.

“At the meeting, the oil company attested to the fact that Idheze community had been a peaceful host without any history of vandalism or oil theft. But is this how to repay a peaceful community? he queried.

The PRO explained that the community saw the action of NAOC as an oppression and injustice.

“For over 10 years, no infrastructural development in our community, no employment for our people and we have been neglected in the area of local content,” he said.

Okpure said that instead of putting pressure on NAOC to do the needful, the state government has ordered the villagers to evacuate from the firm’s gate.

“We consider this abnormal and oppressive. This is a company that has failed to develop our land and refused to employ our people for over 10 years.

“Instead of asking the company to listen to us, we are being asked to suspend our protest. This is unfair and we will not lift the blockage until our demands are met,” Okpure added.

Meanwhile, efforts by the Nigerian Tribune to reach the management of the oil company were not successful.

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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”

He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.

“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.

According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”

“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.

The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”

“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.

“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.

“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.

Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.

“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.

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