From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Crisis is looming as the People of Oil producing Community of Obitti in Ohaji/Egbema Local council of Imo state,are planning a protest over what it ” described as a wilful neglect of the Community “.
Indigenes of the community who spoke to Daily Sun on Tuesday said they have finally lost patience over government’s repeated promises to look into their problems.
An indigene of Umuchiome village in Obitti community, Justin Amadi, he said the community has been so much neglected that its indigenes have lost patience.
According to him, past and present administrations of Imo state kept paying lip service to them and up till now, nothing tangible had been done by the government to appease the people.
He further disclosed that the community would resort to protest to call the attention of the government.
“Not only that our youths are jobless, they are tagged thugs and accused of instituting violence in the state when truly they are not.
“We have no light, no good roads, no potable drinking water, yet most of the gigantic oil companies including Sterling Global, Water Smith, SEPLAT and others are located in our community. Staff of these oil companies mostly made up of foreigners ply this deplorable road of Obitti on a daily basis because it is the only link road to Rivers State.
“If our people are violent, maybe those engineers from foreign countries plying this road would have been kidnapped or killed, but there has never been any news of such. This is totally unfair.
“I don’t know what it will take the government to come and reconstruct this Obitti road that is the only link road through which our oil is drilled and exported. On the side of the oil companies, they don’t even care if anyone exists, maybe because they are enjoying hitch-free environment and taking our people for granted.
“In other places like Rivers State, oil host communities gain so much from both government and the companies. Their youths are gainfully employed in the companies. But here, none of our youths are working in any of the oil companies located here.
“We have waited for too long for the government to fulfill its promises of bringing development to our community, but since it’s mere political promise, I think we may resort to series of protest to draw the attention of the government.”
Another leader who gave his names as Akah Vincent Nwakanma, said the most annoying was that over 1000 trucks carrying oil ply their road on a daily basis yet they can’t afford to fix the road.
He said the 13% oil derivation for the oil-rich regions had not in any way affected the poor masses in the area, regretting that people are still living in shanties and mud houses in the community.
“People of Obitti are industrious. We are mostly farmers and we produce in large quantities. It is sad that this community has no light for years and no good roads. Our youths are jobless, but they are not violent. Whatever you hear about them being violent is not true. It could be youths from other areas, not Obitti.
“Government should come to our rescue and provide us with social amenities such as electricity, good roads, even palliatives because we are not finding easy in this hard time.”