By Nwabueze Okonkwo

ONITSHA—Whereas Sterling Petroleum Energy Exploration Company, SPEECO, is still celebrating its 10th year Anniversary of oil exploration, indigenes of its host oil-rich Ogwu-Ikpelle, a riverine community located in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, are currently embarking on an angry protest against what they catalogued as hunger, oil spillage, poverty, negligence and environmental degradation.

They said that despite facing seasonal flooding challenges common to riverine areas, the existence of SPEECO in the area for an upward of 10 years now remains a more promising challenge for the Ogwu Ikpelle people.

The protest, which lasted for two days (Friday, January 16 and Saturday 17, 2026), had hundreds of youths, women, children and the elderly complaining bitterly against 10 years of agony, denial, rejection and degradations.

Armed with placards with incriptions: “no visible basic amenities like tarred roads, hospitals, electricty, pipe borne water except few bore holes done recently by the state government and the APC led party in the state”, the protesters turned into near violence, barricaded the company’s entrance gates, shut down the drills and electricity installations which resulted in damaging properties estimated at the over N200 million naira belonging to the company.

Confirming the protesters, Traditional Prime Minister of Ogwu Ikpelle Kingdom, Chief Akaka Damian Anigboso, Odua Ukwu of Ogwu Ikpelle, lamented bitterly over the sufferings of his people, which are too numerous to mention, yet the community is blessed with oil in abundance, drilled for ten years without having anything to show for it.

According to him, “Our oil is being explored and transferred to the Niger Delta. This is 10 good years SPEECO have been operating in our land. None of all the agreements and Memorandum of Understanding MoU we signed with them have been done or reached, rather, they are here exploring oil, selling them and enriching themselves only.”

The traditional prime minister explained that despite a fully loaded four-tanker ship of oil being transferred each day to neighbouring states, their children are left uneducated, unempowered, and unemployed. “They promised to give us scholarships from elementary, secondary, university, and up to a Master’s Degree. No hospital, no piped-borne water, no electricity, we have made frantic efforts to both Enugu and Anambra states Governments to come to our aid, but to no avail”.

“They have neglected us. We are being seen as an oil community with natural wealth but no basic amenities. Our women are rejected, no town hall, the ship that explores the oil has caused erosion near the river banks, leaving no fewer than over thirty houses submerged and fallen into the River Nigeria”.

“We have instructed our youths to block them from further mining until they start doing what is right, or they kill us all before they continue to mine the oil”, he fumed.

Also speaking, former House of Rep member Hon Chuchu Onyema said SPEECO has been in Ogwu Ikpelle for over ten years. “What the people are doing today is celebrating regret, degradation, and all kinds of bad attitudes coming from the company. We have tried to negotiate with them, but for some reasons best known to them, they made themselves inaccessible to us, and that is the main reason for this blockade for these two days”.

“The idea was for us to stop them from working and reach a round table talk for the final time. However, I believe in conflict resolution, not violence. Even in the Constitution, there is a provision for Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR. We are supposed to be receiving three per cent of what is metred, but nothing to show for it”.

“The only street light you see in Ogwu Ikpelle is the one I attracted when I was in the House of Representatives. Other development projects are from the state government when you have an oil company. We are not begging for anything, but those things which are due to us should be given to us.

“They are flaring gas, which you can convert into electricity. The telecommunications mass there is only for their use; electricity is available 24 hours a day. If we want to make a call, we go to the river banks to use services from Delta State. That is why we are here to discuss the way forward. Their ships eroded the soils near the riverbank, and this is barely 24 hours. We shut those rigs down; they are losing millions. No member of this community or Anambra is employed. Let them prove me wrong. We don’t even know what is metred. The state government is also losing”, he lamented.