No less than 50 communities in Edo State on the platform of Concerned Edo Youths staged a protest at the operational office of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) over alleged marginalisation.
The aggrieved communities barricaded the NPDC office on Airport Road, Benin, the state capital in the early hours of Monday, dressed in red attires and armed with placards.
Airing their grievances, one of the heads of the communities in Okhoromi in Oredo Local Government Area of the state, Ovbokhan Igbinovia, said it was quite unfortunate that the various host communities had not felt the impact of the company after its establishment.
He said several letters have been written to the company by the affected with no response.
According to him, “We are 52 communities. The reason we are here is because of NPDC. We are happy that a company like this is situated here in Iyekogba village, but we are not also happy because we are not working there.
‘Our youths and children are not being employed. Series of letters have been written to them since last year.
“They have not responded. So, the youths and elders of the communities have deemed it fit to possess our rights with peaceful demonstration for them to recognise us that we are the indigenes of the community where they are residing presently.
“If you check across the roads, you will see that those roads have not been tarred; if you check the schools, none of them is being renovated.”
Stating their demands, he urged the company to empower and engage the youths of Benin Kingdom, noting that “awarding the maintenance contract of the NPDC headquarters office, Benin to a company in Kaduna is fraudulent and a total disregard of our local content rights under the PIB Law.”
In response, the company through its Community Relations Department representative, Nowe Dumbra, said the management would invite the communities soonest to address their grievances.
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