Lucky Omas
28 January 2019, Sweetcrude, Warri, Delta State — Chevron has been urged to provide electricity and potable water for Kokodiagbene community, Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri south local government area from its power plant at its Utonana flow station.
The community in a letter signed by its Chairman, Mr. Uyadoghan Powede and the General Secretary, Mr. Timiyan Jackson also enjoined the oil company to construct a water scheme in the area to make the people access to potable drinking water.
The letter addressed to the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Chevron, Mr. Wirth Michael said the community had not benefitted from the long years of oil exploration by the oil company in the area, warning that it should not be forced to demand these issues with incessant protests.
The letter reads, “We, the Executives, Chiefs, Leaders of thought and the entire peace-loving people of Kokodiagbene community write to passionately demand the Extension of Electricity from your Utonana Flowstation to our community which situates only about 4 kilometers away from your flowstation. In the same vein, we vehemently request for the construction of Potable Drinkable Water Scheme in our Community.
It will interest you to know that your company has been operating in our community for over four decades with no tangible developmental project sited in the community as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSA); in spite of the uninterrupted oil exploration and exploitation, activities enjoyed from us as a host community. \t is also instructive to state that several attempts have been done by our community by way of peaceful protests to your flowstation so as to get electrified. As for portable drinkable water scheme, all attempts made by your company in the past have ended up in futility with not even one liter of drinkable water achieved.
In the light of the above, we write to passionately seek for your intervention in order for our community to achieve these developmental projects within the shortest time so as to avoid this passionate demand snowball to an unwarranted protest that can interrupt your operations in Utonana field.”
