From Chuks Onuoha, Umuahia
The people of Asa, the oil-rich community in Abia State, have decried treatment meted out to them by Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and oil exploring companies in their land.
They said the mistreatment might push them to resort to violence in getting their right if the organisation continues to neglect them in their developmental strides.
The community, under the aegis of Asa Development Union (ADU), opened up while conducting newsmen round various project sites which were started and abandoned by NDDC over 10 years ago. The President General of ADU, Dr. Onwubiko Dike, insisted that the projects which littered communities in Ukwa West Local Government Area, were started and abandoned by different NDDC managements.
“Since the discovery of crude oil in Owaza, in Asa in 1958, Asa people have not enjoyed any landmark project, but long years of degradation of their environment,” he said.
Accompanied on the visit of the abandoned projects by elders and leaders of thought from various communities in Asaland, Dike lamented that even the ones sited and started sometime ago have been abandoned by the commission, thus giving the impression that Asa communities are not part of oil producing communities in the country.
He disclosed that NDDC has reneged in all agreements it had with Asa people which include the building of a multi million naira civic centre/multipurpose hall at Ugwuati, a modern sports complex at Okeikpe, 132/133kv electricity substation at Ikpokwu, Obokwe District Hospital