Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Operatives of the Nigerian Army have allegedly dispersed members of Rumuekpe community in Emuohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, who are protesting against exclusion from oil pipeline surveillance contracts awarded by NNPC Ltd.
Recall that members of Rumuekpe community under the aegis of Association of Niger Delta Upland Communities, in the last 15 days have blocked the entrance to facilities operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, Niger Delta Petroleum Resources, Nigerian Agip Oil Company and NNPC Ltd. and other oil firms operating in the community.
The protesters in their numbers made of old men, women and youths had barricaded the access road leading to oil and gas facilities in the area with canopies and chairs, singing, cooking, dancing and eating at the protest venue day and night in the last two weeks, demanding to take part in securing oil and gas pipelines in the state, while criticizing NNPC Ltd. for awarding pipeline surveillance jobs only to selected few.
Leader of the Niger Delta Upland Communities, Mr. Isa Mohammed Obiri, said the people in upland communities were unhappy that they were not taken into consideration in the award of pipeline surveillance jobs, adding that it was wrong for selected few to be given the surveillance contract.
But the protest which in the last two weeks had grounded oil operators access to their facilities in Rumuekpe, took a new turn on Thursday as soldiers attached to some of the oil firms disrupted the peaceful protest by shooting sporadically in to the air, flogging the protesters with canes and horse whips.
A protester and member of Rumuekpe community, Mr. Chuks Dimgba who spoke to SweetCrude Reports on the telephone, said though no casualty has been recorded but four protesters sustained gunshot injuries, while canopies and chairs used by the protesters were broken and carted away.
Dimgba who is a member of One Million Youth Volunteers Network of YEAC-Nigeria, who said the soldiers came in about 15 armoured vehicles and pickups trucks to dispersed them, vowed that the protest will continue until all their demands are met.
He said, “The Army started shooting directly at protesters in Rumuekpe with live bullets to disperse us. Four persons are so far shot on different parts of their body but no death has been recorded.
“Two persons who sustained head and leg injuries from the gunshot have been rushed to hospital while the whereabouts of the other persons also shot is unknown as we (protesters) are being forcefully dispersed and people running helter-skelter. The Army also flogged the women with sticks, chasing them away from the protest scene.”
Reacting on the development, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria called on the federal government to prevail on the Nigerian Army to stop the shooting and not to apply force or torture to members of the Rumuekpe community who are exercising their constitutional rights to peaceful demonstration.
Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Mr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, recalled the oil and leadership-related crisis which engulfed Rumuekpe community in 2005 which sacked the community and deaths of hundreds of Rumuekpe people, which until date many parts of the community are inhabitable.
Fyneface warned that the the ongoing crisis in Rumuekpe should not be allow to degenerate into a repeat of the 2005 incident or the massacre of protesting communities by soldiers while protecting oil companies as witnessed in Umuechem, Bonny, Ogoni and other places in the 90s.
“YEAC-Nigeria believes that with Rumuekpe as one of the ‘heartbeats’ of Nigeria’s oil production, with four companies and many crisscrossing pipelines that youths even vandalized periodically for artisanal refineries, it is imperative to include them in the pipeline surveillance jobs to protect the oil facility.
“Thus, we are calling on the Federal Government to prevail on the pipeline surveillance contractors to include Rumuekpe youths in the job.. We also call on the oil companies address development and employment issues in the Rumuekpe community to mitigate restiveness and achieve a smooth operating environment.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army is yet to respond on the matter, as all efforts to get the Acting Deputy Director, 6 Division Nigeria Army Port Harcourt, Maj. Danjuma Jonah to comment on the matter proved abortive.
