By Austin Ogwuda
ASABA—SPECIAL Adviser to the Delta State Governor on Oil and Gas, Mr. David Ekereokosu, has charged oil bearing communities to avoid intra-communal crisis, because oil prospecting companies “take undue advantage of the disunity of our people.”

He spoke at the first quarterly meeting of Delta State government with oil and gas producing communities and companies in Asaba, yesterday.

Meanwhile, a family at Okpai, in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of the state has petitioned the Delta State Commissioner of Police, demanding the immediate release of one Mr. Augustine Ikwuobodo, who was allegedly arrested because of his business interest in an oil prospecting company in the area.

The family in the petition said, “On September 3, 2010 around 10pm, five police officers in mufti arrested Mr. Ikwuobodo.”

According to the petition, Augustine was framed up and “all these lies were contrived to keep him out of circulation because of the fact that he is a major contractor to oil companies operating in Okpai and its environs.

“As at now, no member of his family knows the whereabouts of the said Mr. Ikwuobodo. It is our contention that it is immoral, illegal and subversion of the rule of law to continue to detain a citizen of this country in view of sections 34, 35 and 36 of the 1999 constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights,” the petition added.