Tony John, Port Harcourt
Oil Producing Communities in Rivers State have pleaded with the Federal Government to use funds recovered from corrupt leaders and politicians for provision of basic social amenities to Niger Delta citizens.
Offoin-Ama, Ngeje and Belema Communities in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of the state, made the call yesterday, when they briefed journalists following the shutdown of the OML25 oil field operated in the area.
Chairman of Offoin-Ama Council of Chiefs, Chief Ibiosiya Nath-Sukubo, who spoke at the briefing noted that the communities contribute over 200,000 barrels of oil and over 1.5 million standard cubic feet of gas (mmscf), but regretted that they lacked basic infrastructures.
Nath-Sukubo said: “A major project as the road from Degema to Kula and its adjoining communities should commence. Use the money recovered from loots to give us development. Monies recovered from corrupt politicians are more than enough to secure such project by a reputable contractor.
“We are prone to serious ecological hazard like earthquake, Tsunami etc. The natural source of income which is fishing has been a diminution”.
Similarly, Alabo (Engr.) Fiala Okoye-Davies of King Oko Royal House, Belema Community, urged the Federal Government to set up a presidential committee that would visit the area to ascertain the level of marginalization.
Okoye-Davies said: “ His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR), should set up a special Fact Finding Committee to visit the area to see the level of neglect, backwardness and suffering of a people that have hosted Shell for over for 40-years, with a view to setting us free from SPDC”.