By Chancel Bomadi Sunday, BOMADI

Women, youths and leadership of Egbemo-Angalabiri Domain host to Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, in Ekeremor local government area of Bayelsa state, have shut down the company’s flow station at Opukushi in a protest over breach of the Global Memorandum of Understanding, GMoU, between the duo.

The protesters comprising mostly women, youths and leadership of the domain, led by the chairman of the Egbemo-Angalabiri community, Mr Famous Initimi Putuku,, besieged the company’s facility in a commando style, yesterday, after years of pleas to the company to fulfil demands of communities in the domain.

Mr Putuku, addressing newsmen after shutting down the facility, said: “We are here to say enough is enough to SPDC. SPDC has been dribbling us for donkey’s years in our demand for electricity in our communities. They have been giving us excuses while their company yard enjoys 24 hours electricity.

“Due to operations of oil companies in our domain, aquatic life is gone, there are no fishes in our rivers, our communities are in abject poverty and we’re in darkness, which is an irony of an oil producing domain.

“What we need now is electricity and if SPDC cannot link us to their station, they can give our communities power generating plants but refused and never considered us worthy of the modern facilities they are enjoying.

“Again, SPDC has also refused to recognize our duly elected and constituted community leadership through the activities of their Community Relations Coordinator, CRC, Mr Nengi Brown, who is in charge of Tunu Cambo Oil Field, Dodo north and Opukushi flow station.

Mr Brown has been playing hanky panky games in the community affairs, taking sides in a divide-and-rule game he is playing, and he has vowed not to recognize the current leader of Egbemo-Angalabiri community, administrative head of the domain.

“What we are saying here is that, SPDC should transfer Mr Brown from Egbemo-Angalabiri domain because he is a major actor in the problems of the domain. We have come here to stay and we will not leave until our demands are met”.

However, efforts to speak with SPDC’s CRC, Mr Nengi Brown, was fruitless as he did not answer calls placed on his mobile phone, neither a text message forwarded him was answered at the time of filing this report.

It’s worthy to note that SPDC started operations in Egbemo-Angalabiri domain in the early 1960s, while the Nigeria Agip Oil Company, NAOC, started in the late 1970s with several subsidiary companies. More so, the domain, being the richest in oil mineral deposit in the state, has over 150 oil wells with a population of over eight thousand inhabitants.