From Tony John, Port Harcourt

Youths of Omoku, the headquarters of Ogba/ Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Riv­ers, have shut down the Nigerian Agip Oil Com­pany (NAOC) Ob-Ob Gas Plant located along Obrikom in the area.

The Omoku youths were said to have blocked the entrance to the facil­ity at about 6:00am yes­terday, thereby paralys­ing business activities at the Italian multinational oil firm.

Vice President of the youth’s association, Eme­ka Agbaere, confirmed the incident to newsmen, saying they staged pro­test over insensitivity of the management to their memorandum of under­standing (MoU).

Agbaere said the group had written several let­ters and reminders to the management of the com­pany without receiving any reply.

The youth leader re­called that after banning the association seven years ago by the admin­istration of former gover­nor Chibuike Amaechi, in February 2016, Governor Nyesom Wike lifted the ban.

He disclosed that fol­lowing the lift of ban, the association wrote to the management of Agip in­forming them that they had been permitted to continue their activities in the area, but received no response from the company.

“We wrote several let­ters to Agip to recognise the group after the ban was lifted by the current administration. There was no reply to that effect, un­til we managed to shake them before the manage­ment listened to us on April 26 this year. Anoth­er meeting was scheduled for June 17. We met with the general manager, but nothing has come out of the agreement till date.”

Agbaere vowed that there would not be room for dialogue, until the company has com­menced implementation of outstanding MoU, adding that the company would remain shut down until the youths were sat­isfied with the company’s response.