By Samuel Oyadongha, Yenagoa
The people of KEFEES host communities of Bayelsa State last Thursday abandoned their farming and fishing activities to celebrate the inauguration of projects worth N482m in their domain sponsored by Chevron Nigeria Limited.

The far flung communities of Koluama I & II, Ekeni, Fish Town, Foropa, Ezetu I &II and Sangana, which are situated in Southern Ijaw and Brass local government areas of the state on the Atlantic fringe could only be reached by water and lacked both state and local government presence.

It was therefore not surprising when the people of the these predominantly agrarian settlement Thursday abandoned their fishing and farming activities to witness the inauguration of projects such as well furnished teachers quarters building, potable water projects, public toilets, concrete foot bridges, community rest house, installation of transformers, concrete jetty and renovated primary school buildings executed by the Keffes Rural Development Foundation, one of the Regional Development Committees under the Chevron Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU).

Speaking at the occasion, the Paramount Ruler of Ezetu Pennington Kingdom, King I. N. Igbousa-Oduo X, described the commissioning as a concrete and significant leap in the history company’s operations in the KEFFES host communities.

In his remarks, the chairman of KEFFES Rural Development Foundation, Mr. Christopher Tuduo, commended Chevron for bankrolling the projects even as he called for increase funding to enable the foundation embarked on more development projects that would benefit the communities.

He also called for greater state government and Niger Delta Development Commission participation in the funding of development projects in the area.

Inaugurating the projects, Chevron General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, Engr. Femi Odumabo said the successful implementation of the projects reinforces the GMoU Community Engagement model as a vehicle for sustainable socio-economic development in communities around its operations.

Represented by Elijah Ebikikoro, GMoU Team Lead for Keffes, Odumabo, said, the successes recorded in the implementation of the GMoU in Keffes and in other clusters communities bordering our operations in the Delta region have shown that with support the communities can drive their development process.”

He described as immense the socio -economic benefits of the community driven GMoU saying, “as a result of the efforts to date, a value chain is coming together. It has empowered community contractors and artisans, enhanced education opportunities for the children through scholarships and provided better infrastructure for the people.”