The indigenes of Okpokoroala in Uratta Autonomous Community, Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area in Abia State, on Monday brought operations at the Aba depot of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to a standstill during a protest over an alleged neglect of the community by the organisation.
Youths who were from the NNPC host community barricaded the entrances into the oil depot demanding total change in what they termed maltreatment by the company.
The protest took a frightening turn when the community’s chief priest in company with the angry youths, brought out the statue of their community diety , placed it on the main entrance of the company and dared anyone to cross it.
The protesters also came armed with placards bearing different inscriptions like: ‘NNPC recognise your host community’, ‘NNPC since 1979, you’ve not offered us office pin as your host, is it fair? Are we not your host community’, ‘Why treat us as if we don’t exist? And ‘Enough of these 42 years of neglect’ among others.
The protesters sang protest songs in front of the company’s gate but were peaceful in their conduct.
Speaking on behalf of the host community, President of Uratta Autonomous Community, Young Ngwaziem, said, “The agreement we had with the NNPC was that 60 per cent of support staff must come from the host community.
“The big people here (NNPC) used their relatives and brothers to replace the job meant for the host community. We don’t have one person in support staff of which 60 per cent is ours. The only person we had, they removed him.
“Since 1979, they took our lands without any compensation, they have not even given the host community even the smallest health centre. Let them give our people their rights. They can’t even grade the roads leading to the depot. We don’t give them trouble, but they’re treating this peaceful community as though we are fools.”
On his own part, the youth president of Okpokoroala, Chukwuemeka Chidi, said that the presence of the NNPC had been of zero blessing to them as it added no joy to their host.
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