The Traditional Prime Minister of Ogwu-Ikpele kingdom, Chief Akaka Damian Anigboso led the residents of the community, youths, women and the elderly people to protest against the deplorable and pitiable condition of their community inspite of oil exploration in the area for ten years by Sterling Petroleum Energy Exploration Company (SPEECO).
Angel Network News (ANN) gathered that
Ogwu Ikpele, a riverine community in Ogbaru Council Area of Anambra State, is presently reeling in pains and agony over ten years of oil exploration from SPEECO.
During the protests, the people erected barricades in some places and the drills and electricity shut down, resulting in huge losses to the company.
Their protests which coincided with the company’s celebration of 10 years of oil exploration in the community centered around lack of visible social amenities like tared roads, Hospitals or Health Centres or any health facility at all, Electricity, Pipe- borne Water, and schools.
The two bore holes in the vast community, the people said were the ones dug recently by the state government and the All Progressives Congress (APC ) in the council area when they were soliciting for support during the November 8, Guber polls in the state.
“It has been 10 years of agony, denial, rejection and degradations, the Traditional Prime Minister of Ogwu Ikpele Kindgom, Chief Akaka Damian Anigboso, lamented bitterly, saying that their people had suffered so much in the hands of SPEECO these past 10 years that they started oil exploration there.
“The sufferings of our people are too numerous to mention. Where do I begin? Is it lack of basic amenities like water, health centres, good drinking water and access motorable roads?
“Yet, the community is blessed with oil in abundance, drilled for 10 years without having anything to show for it. SPEECO just came here to exploit and enslave us.
“Our oil is being explored and transferred to Niger Delta. This is 10 good years SPEECO has been operating in our land,and all the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) agreements we signed with them had been left unimplemented. They take our people for a ride which is wrong “, he said.
The Odua of Ogwu-Ikpele explained that despite fully loaded four tanker ships of oil being transferred each day to neighbouring states, their children are left uneducated, unempowered, unemployed.
“They promised to give us scholarships from elementary, secondary, university, and up to Master’s Degree. No hospital, no pipe borne water, no electricity, we have made frantic efforts to Enugu government and Anambra Government but they have neglected us.
“We are being seen as an oil community with natural wealth but no basic amenities. Our women are rejected, no town hall, the ship that explores the oil has caused erosion near the river banks leaving no fewer than over thirty houses submerged and fallen into the Niger River.
“We have instructed our youths to block them from further mining until they start doing what is right, or they kill us all before they continue to mine the oils,” he fumed.
Also speaking, former House of Representatives member for Ogbaru Federal constituency, Hon Chuchu Onyema said SPEECO has been in Ogwu Ikpele for over ten years.
“What the people are doing today is celebrating regret, degradation, and all kinds of bad attitudes coming from the company. We have tried to negotiate with them, but for some reasons best known to them they keep avoiding us.
” But this blockade was for us to stop them from work and force a round table talk for the final time. We believe in conflict resolution, not violence. There is social corporate responsibility.
” We are supposed to be receiving three per cent of what is metred but nothing to show for it. The only street light you see in Ogwu Ikpele is the one I attracted when I was in the House of Reps. Other development projects are from the state government when you have an oil company.
We are not begging for anything, but those things which are due to us should be given to us.
“They are flaring gas which could be converted to electricity, the telecommunications mast there is only for their use, electricity is 24 hoursfor them alone. If we want to make a call, we go to the river banks to use services from Delta State.
“That is why we are here and want to discuss the way forward. Their ships erode the soils near the river bank, this is twenty four hours we shut their rigs down.
“They are losing millions. No member of this community or Anambra is employed. Let them prove me wrong. We dont even know what is metred. The state government is losing”, he said bitterly.
Hon Onyema, however, disclosed that the deplorable road in the area would soon be fixed because the state Governor Chukwuma Soludo has assured he would tar the road from Uga junction -Ossamala-Ogwu Ikpele en route to Rivers State.
Hon Onyema also said that plans were underway to build a hospital in the community as the primary health care centre there is not enough for the community.
He commended the state government for erecting public pipe borne water a few months ago, which according to him, is not enough for the populous community.
“We hope that the better living conditions of the people will be experienced in Ogwu Ikpele in no distant time”, he said
Earlier, the President -General of Ogwu Ikpele community, Mr Esumai Patrick Chukwudi said the reason for the gathering and protests was to celebrate 10 years of rejection, humiliation and insults from SPEECO exploration company which has been mining oil in the community within the same period of time with nothing to show for it.
. “No employment, no road, no water, no hospital, nothing that is coming from them and we have been begging them since they started operations. 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 Niger river where they move these oils across to Delta State.
” 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.
“The company has refused to show up with their social responsibilities, and the gas flare has affected our economic trees, especially palm trees.
“All the rivers here are pollution that we cannot even fish in this community and the spillage has been affecting the farm produce for the past 10 years and these are what prompted the blockade.
“We want the world to hear us and come to our help”, he said.
“No single person from Anambra is employed. We have a consensus sixty/forty agreement on employment for our youths and there is still noting to show up.
“We are begging the state government to intervene so that the people can have a breath of fresh air. Yesterday we shut down all the wells.
“We have about 12 wells in Umuokike, seven in Umuayas, seven in umumgbeleke, Umuogbulishi and Umuogbu 12 wells. Even the pipes they laid across to Delta State, we shut them down and that is why they came today for us to dialogue and we have told them our grievances.
“They said they were going to fix another meeting. That’s what they have been telling us in the past 10Â years. All the jobs here are given out to people outside Anambra state.
“We are virtually empty in this community, and they are drilling oil day to day. 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 to Anambra, called Kwale pipeline. They came and we saw them”.
The PG said that the Anambra state government was aware of the people’s suffering and Governor Soludo has promised to rehabilitate the road from Uga junction to Ogwu Ikpeleto Ndoni in Rivers State.
. “Since Oil in Ogwu Ikpele is running, they will fix it, and we believe that he will fix it, including other social responsibilities”, he said.
Youth President Ogwu Ikpele Aghauli Chimuanya Peter, noted that SPEECO’ s existence in the community over the years was a curse to them rather than a blessing because of the pollution and devastation everywhere without amenities in place.
“We demand that the company build roads for us, pipe borne water, electricity, solar powered lights, and employment. As the youth leader, I do not even have access to go in there, not to talk about work”, he said
Another community leader and teacher, Mr Aghauli Dominic Chukwudi, while noting that the government abandoned them for years, urged Governor Soludo to intervene so that before SPEECO leaves Ogwu Ikpele there would have been something significant done for the community.
In her contribution, the woman President General, Mrs Onwuaghamadu Victoria, said the SPEECO’S presence in the community these past 10 years had been useless and a curse to them and would no longer be tolerated.
“There’s nothing to gain, our children are not working not to talk of the women folks, all we ask is to make life liveable for us with these basic amenities in place. Our pregnant women have to travel to Onitsha to give birth, nothing is moving and we are not happy”, she said.
Another speaker, Dominic Anumale from Umungashi Ogwu Ikpele stated that SPEEPO has been using tricks in the community, adding that they had been suffering.
Commodities that are cheap in other communities he emphasized had become costly in Ogwu-Ikpele because there are no good roads to convey goods to them .
“The cost of living is high.and we have oil, so today we decided to say no to them until the right thing is done”, he said SPEECO officials shunned entreaties to speak on the issue saying their Public Affairs department would issue a response in due course.
