Itsekiri National Development Initiative, INDI, has justified the reason it intends to initiate another round of protest against the management of Chevron Nigeria Limited, saying its treatment of the Itsekiri in Olero, Dibi, Escravos and Warri is poor.

Chairman of INDI, Dennis Mene, lamented what he described as the nonchalant attitude of the organisation towards its host community, noting that they were being denied employment opportunities by Chevron’s management.

Mene, in a statement, warned that if the situation remained uncorrected, it might lead to social demonstrations across Chevron facilities in Warri Kingdom.

The statement reads:  “We are disturbed by what is happening at your establishment and if not nipped in the bud, may lead to another shutdown of your facilities. This is happening despite the just concluded protest, Itsekiri are still being dropped from Chevron operations unjustly. It shows that Chevron has no regard for Itsekiri people and this if not corrected will lead to another round of protest across Chevron facilities in Warri Kingdom.

“It is pertinent to note that while the protest is going on, Chevron has forced two  indigenous companies  that have new contracts in the Chevron Facility Management (FM) department in EGTL and Tank Farm Escravos (BrownHill and Coma) to drop all the Itsekiri staff they employed and gave them names of strangers to employ and they are forcing them to call the strangers to resume by Monday 29th July 2024.

“Furthermore, our findings showed that the strangers Chevron staff from FM are trying to use to replace the Itsekiris are all either their lovers, friends, cronies or sympathizers. And this is against Chevron principle to choose personnel for local community contractors.

“The contractors BrownHill Limited and Coma limited did recruitments and employed suitable qualified Itsekiris and submitted the names to Chevron Facility Management (FM) department in Escravos for onward mobilization to site but the Chevron FM team rejected their names and instead handed the contractor their own list of people that they must employ them.

“These contracts are supposed to be for employment of locals as stated by Chevron PGPA manager during our engagement with them some years ago.

“We reliably gathered that the mastermind of this act is one Henry Okoro (Chevron services manager). Who forced and mandated Brownhill limited against the will of the contractor to conduct an interview for his Girlfriend Miss Bliss Egharegha after the contractors had completed the recruitment process and submitted their list of personnel to Chevron for mobilization.

“They even went further to  submit their own list filled with their cronies to the contractors and are trying to force their own people on the Itsekiri Local contractors.

“This is even an insult because this is done during an Itsekiri protest. How can Chevron be choosing workers for our local contractors? These companies did advertise for employment earlier this month and employed qualified Itsekiri, but Chevron is saying they must fill these positions that are supposed to be for Ítsekiri with friends and associates of their staff. Even personnel submitted to the PGPA by community names were removed after being shortlisted by the contractors.

“We have urged the two local contractors not to accept the said Chevron selected list of workers and hold on to the list they originally put forward to Chevron Facility Management department that carries mainly Itsekiri personnel.

“We urge you to use your good office to stop this anomaly and allow the contractors to use their workers they submitted to the Chevron FM in Escravos. We wish to state in strong terms that if Chevron Nigeria Limited failed to abide by the list of workers the two indigenous contractors sent to them they should be ready for  another round of protest from Itsekiri in Olero, Dibi, Escravos, Warri and every other part of Itsekiriland that have Chevron facilities.”