It was a failed arrangement for President Jonathan Goodluck to visit Rivers State last Thursday to attend a two-day oil and Gas trade investment forum 2012 at the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone, Rivers State. As the forum was billed to commence at 7.30am awaiting Mr. President’s arrival to flag it off, Eleme youths in Eleme Local Government Area of the State disrupted vehicular and human movement over issues ranging from long standing boundary dispute between their community and their neighbouring community called Okrika, where Dr. Abiye Sekibo, former Transport Minister and ACN governorship candidate Rivers State hails from.
Inevitably the forum jointly organized by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Commerce and Orlean investment Limited could not commence as scheduled.
Daily Independent which witnessed the protest by the youth gathered that they trooped out as early as 5.30am and blocked all strategic points from Akpajo-Refinery Junction – trailer park down to NOTORE Chemical Company along Onne road. From that early hour of the day, it became difficult for both government and company workers and self employed to go to work or their various places because vehicles were not allowed to move along the road.
The demonstrators blocked the road with trucks and buses which they seized and deflated their tyres. Daily Independent counted over 30 vehicles grounded at the strategic Port Harcourt Refinery junction, while they also closed down the Eleme ultra modern market and entire business outlets in the community.
At the refinery junction, the irate youths numbering over 1,000 carried placards with various headlines such as, “Eleme/Okrika no boundary demarcation, INTELS where is the local content law, NNPC give us our quota, and NOTORE chemical discharge is killing us and our roads are deplorable example Akpajo axis.”
However, the Eleme local government chairman, Chief Ejor Ngofa and some high ranking police officers were swift to engage the youth leaders in peaceful dialogue to shelve their protest, pleading with them to open the blocked road and release the vehicle keys to their owners or drivers to give room for the proper dialogue.
Some of the youths who spoke with Daily Independent said their main point of protest was the government insensitivity over their boundary dispute with Okrika people that caused bloodshed between the two communities some years back. They also complained that, “We are being denied of our basic socio economic rights by some companies operating on their land like INTELS, NNPC, and NOTORE Chemical Company at Onne among others so we staged the protest to draw the attention of Mr. President and his government.”
Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State who represented President Goodluck Jonathan at the Oil and Gas Investment Forum confirmed that the Eleme youths actually disrupted part of the day over the boundary dispute between the two communities but their protest had nothing to do with insecurity in the area so the forum participants had no cause to entertain any fear because their safety was guaranteed.
Some observers who witnessed the protest said, “though youths have the right or freedom to agitate for their legitimate rights, but the Eleme youths came out at a wrong time because they shouldn’t have scared Mr. President away from visiting their area for the first time when the government is determined to woo more investors to the free zone which would be to their advantage.”
They wondered whether President Jonathan should take over the job of the Federal Road maintenance Agency (FERMA) when the agency is well funded to take care of the federal roads where they are failing, and also whether he should also be the one to dialogue with companies denying them their rights when their chiefs, community leaders and state government labour leaders are on ground.
Source: OgoniNews
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