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From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Federal Government has summoned the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NOAC) for explanation, following report of alleged plans to sack over 165 indigenous workers to avert looming crisis.
Daily Sun gathered that the presidency had invited the firm, Omoku Communities (the Complaint) the Managing Director of NNPC, Secretary to the Federation, the Director, Department of State Security and the Inspector General of Police to the meeting in Abuja, on Monday.
It was further learnt that NAOC did not turn up for the meeting, but rather sent in a letter detailing that it could not gather its personnel for the meeting, causing a reschedule of the meeting for August 23, 2021.
Speaking in Port Harcourt, yesterday, on arrive from the meeting, the Coordinator-General of Omoku Community Youth Leaders Forum (OCYLF), Ekeuku Pureheart, commended federal government for initiating the peace move, adding that it would resolve the pending issues between the host communities of Omoku and Agip.
Pureheart noted that the newly passed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), has saved the host communities in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, from the stronghold of Agip.
He accused Agip of turning the communities to beggars, noting that with the passage of the PIB, a legal framework has been established on how the firm should relate with its host.
Pureheart said: “Since the PIB has been passed, Agip will no longer have all those excuses, because the PIB will now be the legal framework to address the issues of host communities.
“It has been to Agip as if we are begging them. Whatever we demand, it is as if they are doing us favour and we are begging them. But, today, by the grace of God, it is now a matter of right because there are legal provisions to it in the PIB.
“To a very good extent, that PIB has saved our communities from Agip. If you look at the PIB, from company Section 234, talks about host communities. Section 242, talks about metrics, where the oil company will now come up with how much each of the communities involved in each of the trusts.
“The law makes it clear that the engagement of those communities will be with each host community. Agip claim they deal with Omoku as cluster of communities, but if you want to deal with a cluster community, cluster means that there are two, three communities you are grouping together. Now, for you to deal with people in a group, you must identify them. Who are the component parts that make up this cluster you are talking about? Nobody.”
He, however, called on the federal government to compel Agip to follow the template set up by government on how surveillance jobs should be given to host communities.
He said: “Agip just created this ghost system. They go to the government and tell them they are dealing with Omoku as cluster, whereas what they are doing is not cluster. They are operating a very wicked system.
“The PIB states that each of the communities should be treated individually. When you go to a community, engage with the youths, women, men differently. The issues of community leaders trying to take over what belongs to the women is no longer there.
“We are calling on the federal government to bring Agip down because they are behaving like a country. There is a template from the federal government on how this surveillance contracts should be which the NNPC sealed. We are only urging the federal government to compel Agip to comply with that template, because it is getting too much of them.”
