BY FESTUS AHON

UGHELLI—Worried by their alleged exclusion from the list of host communities to the Export Processing Zone, EPZ, project in Delta State, the people of Sokobolou and Yokiri communities in Ogulagha Kingdom, Burutu Local Government Area of the state, have urged President Goodluck Jonathan to stop the proposed flag-off of the project to avert another round of crisis between the Itsekiri and Ijaw in the state.

The people, in a letter by Mr. Freedom Adowei and Daniel Comboye, Youth Presidents of Sokobolou and Yokori communities respectively, addressed to President Jonathan, said that their alleged exclusion was wrong and unacceptable.

They said: “We heard from reliable sources that during the flag-off of the School of Marine Technology at Gbaramatu Kingdom by President Jonathan on May 10, he will stop over to also flag-off the EPZ project.

“Unless our communities’ names are attached to the project, it must not be flagged-off because our communities, (Sokobolou/Yokori) are prominent hosts to the EPZ project. Initially, they told us that it was 400 hectares they proposed to use for the project and that it would not encroach into Sokobolou’s land, and pleaded with us to wait till they get to our land. From our findings, the project is in three kingdoms, Sokobolou/Yokori in Ogulagha Kingdom, Ikpokpo in Gbaramatu Kingdom and Ogidigben in Itsekiri.

“We appeal to President Jonathan not to come to the project site to flag it off because the project has not been properly named after the rightful host communities. There are many federal projects we know about. For example, the FTI project in Forcados and the Forcados/Yokiri Integrated project, Escravos Gas To Liquid, EGTL, among others, were all named after the host communities. For the Itsekiri people to first and foremost want to deprive us of the name by calling it Ugborodo EPZ project, is out-rightly wrong and unacceptable.

“If at all it must be flagged-off, the name must be acceptable to all the host communities because projects are named after the major stakeholders. And in this case, Sokobolou and Yokiri are major stakeholders in the EPZ project.

“The people of Sokobolou, Yokiri and Ogulagha Kingdom reject in totality the president’s proposed commissioning of the EPZ project. It is not acceptable to us. We are one of the owners of the land and any attempt to deprive us either in land acquisition, proceeds from the project or employment, will not be unacceptable to us.”