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Siege to oil terminal: Youths feared killed in
clash with soldiers
FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Lagos and
SEGUN JAMES, Warri
AN
unspecified number of persons were feared killed yesterday when Ugborodo youths
clashed with soldiers of Operation Restore Hope, the task force on the
Niger Delta, at the Escravos tank farm and oil terminal.
The farm and terminal are owned by oil
multinational, Chevron Texaco.
But, senior oil workers union, the
Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have
predicted that crisis would continue in the Niger Delta and disrupt the planned
privatisation of the refineries until the Federal Government assured of the
relevant political will to resolve the problem.
The deployment of the men of Operation
Restore Hope under the command of Brig. Gen. Elias Zamani was to restore law
and order at the terminal after the youths of Ugborodo, an Itsekiri community
whose land houses the terminal, invaded the facility.
This followed a breakdown of negotiations
between the community and Chevron Texaco over a number of issues, according to
one account.
Daily Champion
gathered that following the crisis that rocked Warri area in
2002 and 2003, Chevron, Texaco allegedly went into some agreements with the
people of the community so that the company’s ensure hitch free operations.
Sources alleged that the company later
backed down on the agreements which were contained in a purported Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) signed with the people as the peculiar situation which led
to the signing of the deal was over a development resorted to by the community.
According to Mr. Victor Omunu, a member of
the Ugborodo interim executive committee, the group, which manages the affairs
of the community, part of the agreement that Chevron Texaco allegedly refused to
honour was the sacking of the 40 community liaison officers employed by the
company.
He further alleged that Chevron Texaco
stopped work on the Ugborodo New Town Project which had been on for 11 years.
Apparently fed up with the situation,
Ugborodo youths invaded and occupied tank farm in the early hours of yesterday
following which soldiers and a gunboat were despatched to dislodge them.
Contacted yesterday, Gen. Zamani confirmed
that the youths invaded the terminal.
He said his men were at the time of our
enquiry, patrolling the terminal premises.
Zamani said enquiries for any other
information about what lead to the face-off should be directed to the company,
adding that the report he had were those sent by the commander of the team
deployed to the terminal.
Several calls put through to Mr. Wole
Agunbiade, External Relations Manager, Chevron Texaco, ended in his voice mail.
PENGASSAN said in a statement in Lagos
that until government musters enough political will to resolve the restiveness
in the Niger Delta, clashes between host communities and oil companies would
remain regular occurrences.
The association, in the statement signed
by its general secretary, Dr. Mojibayo Fadakinte, also highlighted incessant
damage to oil facilities which affect crude supplies to the refineries and the
perceived helplessness of government to deal decisively with the situation.
PENGASSAN, which absolved Labour of
allegations by government of being the obstacles towards effective privatisation
of the refineries, said "we have often asked that if government that has all the
military might finds it difficult to deal with line breakages, hostage-taking,
piracy, flow station vandalization, seizure of barges and tug boats, how do we
expect private individuals to take over the refineries and be able to handle
these problems?"
The union said what Labour had done was to
ask government to follow due process in disposing of the refineries and not sell
them as scrap as being proposed by the World Bank.
Dr. Fadakinte recalled that a technical
committee earlier set up by government with PENGASSAN as a member, had
recommended steps to be taken for successful privatisation of refineries to the
Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
"But up till now, the recommendations have
not been considered. Where then is our fault?" he queried.
He condemned the resort of the youths to
hostage-taking at the slightest disagreement with oil companies and called on
government to as a matter of urgency, attend to the problems of the people of
the region.
PENGASSAN, which made specific reference
to the seizure of four oil flow stations in the area on December 5 and the
holding of 75 oil workers hostage, urged government to set up machinery to
secure the unconditional release of the affected employees.
"We are becoming increasingly worried over
this dastardly act, which we consider as condemnable and unnecessary violence on
innocent workers" the association stated.
It asked for improvement in local content
participation and increased indigenization of operations in the oil and gas
sector of the economy as a potent way of addressing the problems.
"We shall not stop raising alarm on the
Niger Delta crisis because most often oil workers are usually the first victims.
And this is why we owe it as a responsibility to continue to put pressures on
government because we know government has what it takes to solve the problem,"
PENGASSAN noted.
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