By Emma ARUBI

WARRI- THOUSANDS of Ijaw, Itsekiri, Ilaje and Urhobo youths from host communities in Delta state, last week, paralysed the operations of Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) along NPA Expressway, for several hours barricading all entrances to the company’s premises as early as 6 a.m.

The placard carrying protesters, who claimed to be acting under the platform of Chevron Host Communities Procurement Association, prevented the officials from accessing their offices.

The presence of heavily armed soldiers and Mobile Policemen, led by one Major Nledamin and DSP Prince Ezejiofor, did not however deter the protesters, as they chanted war songs threatening to shut down the operations of the company completely.

Some of the placards carried by the protesters read thus “ No local content, no operations; We need our rights”; ‘Chevron stop marginalizing the host communities”; “ Chevron staff stop doing contracts for Chevron”.

Chairman of the Chevron Host Communities Procurement Association, Mr. Emmanuel Adidi, told journalists that his members were angry with the re-location of the Procurement Department of the company to Lagos which he alleged was deliberate to shut them from having contracts from the oil firm.

He said the leadership of the association had a meeting with the management of Chevron pt week during which their demands were refused and had to resort to the peaceful protest.

“Our purpose of coming here is to make sure that we come to fight for our rights as host communities that are within the areas of Chevron operations. We come together, the Itsekiris, Ijaws, Ilajes and the Urhobos to fight a common cause by protesting since that is the only language the company understands.

“One of our demands is that the headquarters of procurement department that used to be in Warri but was moved to Lagos be relocated back for easy accessibility by the host community contractors”, Mr. Adidi insisted.

It took the intervention of prominent Itsekiri leaders, Chiefs Ayiri Emami, Newton Agbofordo and others as well as the security agents’ time to placate the protesters to vacate the premises and allow work to resume, saying that Chevron claimed that they cannot be dialoguing with different groups when their accredited representatives in the Chevron created RDC are already handling the issues.

None of the officials of Chevron Nigeria Limited was willing to comment on the incident as all officials of the Public Affairs Department could not be reached on their mobile telephones.