By Davies Iheamnachor

PORT HARCOURT—Oil producing communities in Ogba/Ndoni/Egbema Local Government Area, ONELGA, of Rivers State have alleged neglect by the Federal Government and International Oil Companies, IOCs, operating in the area.

The communities insist that Federal Government should produce a blueprint to develop the oil and gas rich area, even as they enjoined Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, to site its proposed refinery in ONELGA.

Oil-pipeline

Speaking, weekend, in Omoku, ONELGA, Chairman, ONELGA Host Communities Stakeholders Forum, OHCSF, Chief Nelson Ekperi, expressed displeasure that the area lacks basic amenities despite their contribution to the economic life of the country.

Ekperi lamented that wealth derived from ONLEGA is used to develop other cities, whereas the people of the area live in abandonment.

Ekperi said: “It is a known fact that ONELGA contributes more than 70 percent of crude oil and gas that currently sustains the nation’s economy. The communities that produce oil and gas, the sources of the product that has made Bonny very important, are ignored.

“Whereas ONELGA produces 56.6 percent of gas feedstuck to the NLNG in Bonny, ONELGA has not benefited from the Federal Government apart from the Federal College of Education that is declared as a the worst in the country in terms of infrastructure.”