Delta communities protest pipeline leakages, pollution, give ultimatum

Members of Kantu and Odidi oil producing communities in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, in their hundreds on Tuesday, staged a peaceful protest at Odidi Flow Station in condemnation of frequent pipeline leakages and their harmful effects.

The protesters, comprising community youths and women, who carried placards with assorted inscriptions gave the management of NEPL/NECONDE “a seven-day ultimatum within which to commence genuine implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act process and payment of the 3% of 2022 Operating Expenses as stipulated by the PIA with immediate effect”.

Decrying the “continuous destruction and degradation of the environment and their means of livelihood”, they said the protest and ultimatum were “To enable resumption of implementation of developmental projects in the communities, failure of which may lead to the shutdown of operational activities in the entire OML42 in Delta State”.

The aggrieved protesters appealed to the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to, as a matter of urgency, save their lives “by directing Mr. Mele Kyari, the Group CEO of NNPC Limited, Engr. Muhammad Ali Zarah, MD NEPL, and Mr. Monday Okoro, MD, NECONDE Energy Ltd., to commence full replacement of the said pipelines instead of the sectional repair works being planned by NEPL/NECONDE without recourse to its negative implications on communities and the environment, since sectional repair works will not stop further leakages”.

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They claimed that the leaking Trans Forcados Pipeline which was constructed in the early 1960s “has outlived its life span long ago, leading to continuous pollution of our environment and destruction of our ecosystem, creating hardship for the locals.”

Inscriptions on their placards included ‘OML42 Communities protest against NPDC/NECONDE management over non-implementation of PIA’; ‘Replace Trans Forcados Pipeline (TFP) now, to save our environment’; ‘Stop treating host community workers with less value’; ‘We demand scholarships, employment for host communities’; ‘Stop hijacking host communities contracts’.

Also, in a statement jointly signed by Mr. Windfree Atemubaghan and Prince Preye Okrikpa, the Chairman of Kantu/OML42 Communities Forum and the Chairman, Odidi Federated Communities respectively, they noted with concern that “the aging Trans Forcados Pipeline has been destroying our environment because it has expired and cannot withstand the pressure of crude oil transported through it”.

The statement further canvassed for the award of all community-based marine and other service contracts to indigenous contractors, in line with the Nigeria Local Content Act, “to develop their capacity and expertise so that they can contribute meaningfully to the operations of the oil industry, particularly in OML42 in Delta State”.

The statement alleged that “all community-based marine and other service contracts are being awarded to top management staff of NEPL and NECONDE Energy Limited, using their cronies as community vendors, thereby depriving indigenous contractors of patronage”.

They noted that the protest became imperative after the host communities’ executive members “had made several complaints and representations as well as meetings with the management of NEPL/NECONDE with a view to addressing the issues, but all efforts proved abortive”.

Responding, the site superintendent of NECONDE, Engr. Ekene Onyenekwe and the NPDC representative at the Flow Station, Engr. Ayodeji Ayinde, commended the host communities for their peaceful disposition promising to take their grievances “to the appropriate quarters, and follow it up”.