The people of Gbaramatu Kingdom, in Warri south west local government area of Delta State have urged the Federal Government to address the gross marginalisation of the kingdom or have the operations of multinational oil and gas companies in the area disrupted after ten days.
The Gbaramatu Traditional Council of Chiefs, in a letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari on its behalf by Chief Godspower Gbenekama, said they were constrained to draw the attention of the President to issues that had previously been made known to his government through the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, particularly during his visit to Gbaramatu Kingdom in January 2017.
The Council recalled that Gbaramatu Kingdom had kept to its part of the social contract that brought an end to the era of agitation that was prevalent in Gbaramatu Kingdom, adding that Gbaramatu had become one of the safest places to live in, do business and visit in Nigeria, with the people still suffering neglect.
The kingdom cited the abandoned Omadinor-Excravos road Project that was started and would have led to greater peaceful coexistence and dramatically improve economic relations between the neighbouring local government areas, as well as the multi-billion dollar Export Processing Zone (EPZ) Gas Revolution Industrial Park, Ogidigben and Deep Sea Port Project, Gbaramatu Project that would have created thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
Gbaramatu people said the time had come for goverenment to keep to its promise, with the added benefit of bringing together Gbaramatu Ijaw and Itsekiri people in a common, mutually agreeable economic venture.
According to them, Gbaramatu, which spanned a large part of one of three major Oil Producing Local Governments Areas in Delta State (Warri South-West) was arguably one of the largest single benefactor Kingdoms of the Nigerian state, but lamented that; “despite this, those of us who live in these areas where these exploration activities are carried out have been marginalised, ignored, taken advantage of, all the while, suffering the devastating side effects of this exploration that has occurred due to an almost zero federal presence in our communities.
While Gas is piped from our communities to provide electricity to the north, west and other areas, our communities are left to grope in darkness. For example, the Azama and Inikorogha communities have been in darkness for close to 18 months because the light project where contractors are supposed to provide Diesel for the generator in use has not been happening.”
The people claimed that; “Contractors have neither been mobilised nor given approval to provide the Diesel the generator needs. The case is the same in Opuedebubor and Tebujor, where the Nigerian Gas Company has welched on their responsibility to procure Diesel for these communities, leading to a state of perpetual darkness for the past 12-18 months”.
They warned that If the procurement process was not resumed immediately, they would be forced to stop pleading with the women of the communities who had been held back for months from protesting to the NGC office in Warri.
In summary, Gbaramatu people reeled out their demands to include; the restart of the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) Gas Revolution Industrial Park, Ogidigben and Deep Seaport, Gbaramatu Project, to restart the Omadinor-Excravos road project that was discontinued by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the immediate halt of the current bidding process for the 57 Marginal Fields and come up with modalities where competent companies owned by Gbaramatu sons and daughters will be given the right of first refusal on fields located in Gbaramatu and within the Warri South-West local Government Area, the urgent and immediate relocation to Gbaramatu of the Floating Dock/Ship Building Yard, and a clear path to employment and appointment opportunities for their qualified sons and daughters.
They warned that if the demands were not met they would shut down Oil and Gas operations in their homeland after ten days and urged President Buhari to intervene to avert fresh crisis in the Oil and Gas industry.
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