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Stanley Uzoaru,Owerri
Recently, some aggrieved youths and women from Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, under the aegis of Ohaji/Egbema elites issued a two-week ultimatum to the Federal Government and oil companies in the area to restore electricity to their community or face unpalatable actions.
The angry youths actually threatened to shut down such federal government projects as the turbine gas plant and the skills acquisition programme of the federal government in the area. Oil companies in the areas according to the leader of the group, Francis Uzor will not also be spared.
Most communities in the oil rich area have suffered decades of not having electricity courtesy of the oil companies in their domain as they want the indigenes to settle the bills of power they consumed, contrary to the earlier agreements between them that as the host of the companies, they deserved to benefit from the Niger Delta Master plan to cushion the effect of oil exploration in the region.
Having waited for several years for this to be implemented without any hope, the communities have now resorted to protests and threats.
During the last protest by the aggrieved youths at Mmahun in Egbema community, they declared that enough was enough unless their agreements were implemented.
While that lasted, the traditional rulers in the oil producing communities have given full support to the position of their sons and daughters.
The royal fathers from the oil producing communities after a stormy meeting at the palace of the chairman of the Imo State Oil, Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria (TROMPCON), Eze Sylvester Okwudo on April10, 2019, resolved among other things to let the federal government be aware that they are the “geese that lay the golden egg”.
Also, they want the federal government as a matter of urgency to give Imo state her due share as a coastal state, arguing that most coastal states in Nigeria have received their full shares of projects and other entitlements from the federal government.
Okwudo who is also the Chairman, Ohaji/Egbema Council of Traditional Rulers while reading out the resolution of his colleagues said that they frowned at the total and deliberate neglect of oil producing communities in Imo state for the past fifty years by various administrations in the country, stressing that it was time to remedy the ugly trend.
The communiqué further read: “We call on the oil companies operating in Ohaji/Egbema to stop provoking the members of their host communities through their nonchalant attitude; it is quite unfortunate and prompt crying that most of the oil companies operating in Ohaji/Egbema have flouted all the agreements they reached with oil producing communities and these actions create tension and distrust in the area.
