THE people of the oil-producing communities of Ohaji-Egbema and Oguta in Imo State are angry. They are angry, like many oil -bearing areas of the country, that their rich deposits are not yielding them the desired joy and good life.
Instead of the good things of life that should ordinarily flow in their direction they say all they have to show for 48 years of oil exploration are pain, death, deprivation and environmental abuse.
They are accusing Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), in particular, of hazardous environmental practices and refusal to give something back to the society under the principle of Social Corporate Responsibility.
Such was the frustration of the people that some youths and elderly women from in Umudike, Etekwuru and other adjoining villages in Ohaji Egbema Council Area recently publicly protested their plight, taking over the Umudike-Assa-Etekwuru delivery pipeline.
They also stopped the maintenance team sent by Shell to clean up a crude oil spillage along the pipeline.
The angry protesters who displayed placards with various inscriptions like ‘SHELL stop killing our people’; ‘Compensate victims of the 2001 pipeline explosion’; ‘SHELL activities have destroyed our environment’; “We demand an end to SPDC marginalization’; “SPDC has turned our oil into a curse’, among others, refused all entreaties by the SPDC team to allow them clean up the spilled oil.
Leader of the youths, Mr Reginald Egini, said the spill was a disaster too many for the communities, having rendered hundreds of acres of farmland unproductive.
“This is not the first time we are suffering as a result of oil spillage. In 2001, there was a pipeline explosion that killed about 13 people with several others severely burnt and eventually incapacitated and SHELL promised to pay compensation but nothing has been done up till today,” he said.
The youth leader who vowed that the people would resist repair of the pipeline or clean up of the spilled oil until the company properly negotiates with the people added: “There should first be an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to ascertain the level of damage on the environment because we are farmers and any damage on the soil will drastically affect our means of livelihood”.
He said the communities have nothing to show for all the oil sourced from the area since 1964.
“There is no single hospital, school, market built by SPDC in the community. Neither has it given our youths employment or scholarships but they have kept making promises they never cared to fulfil.”
He handed Shell a list of demands that includes replacement of the old pipelines to avoid continuous oil spillage; payment of all outstanding compensation, including the N4billion awarded the community by a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt; provision of employment for graduates and artisans from the community.
A 99-year-old woman who gave her name as Mama Felicia told The Nation that she decided to join the protest because the community is no longer safe and the land is no longer productive for agriculture.
“If we didn’t join the youths the protest might not be taken seriously, but when they see me they will understand the weight of our pain,” she said.
When contacted the traditional ruler of Umudike community, Ezeali James Nwanro, said the protest was premature.
He said: “When the spillage occurred, I was informed and I knew that SPDC would first embark on preliminary investigation to know if the spillage was an act of sabotage, in which case no compensation will be made or equipment failure; where the communities will be paid for any damage as a result of the spillage. It is only after the investigation that we can know what to do as a community.
“The youths are not in a position to speak for the community, we have leaders and myself as the traditional ruler and we will do everything possible to ensure that Shell does the right thing. So preventing the team from carrying out the inspection is not in the best interest of both parties”.
The SPDC team declined to speak.
