Edith CHUKU
In the earlier hours of Tuesday, aggrieved youths of Alode and Alesa communities in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State, dressed in black, blocked the gate of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC, on a protest.
Their demands were that the representation from Alode in the Joint Community Relation Committee, JCRC, be changed with immediate effect.
Also, that NNPC should provide the list with which they recently employed over hundred persons.
A stakeholder of Alode Community, Mr. Olaka O. Olaka, told TNN in an interview that the protest was against the alleged unending marginalization by NNPC against the community.
He explained that, “Alode Community is equally protesting at the Alode gate, that’s the back gate, so it’s a protest by the two host communities; Alode and Alesa communities.
“The demand are very simple; we have been marginalized for a very long time, we are requesting that NNPC should show us the list with which they recently made the employment of over a hundred persons.
“We also demand that the representation from Alode in the Joint Community Relation Committee, that’s JCRC, be changed with immediate effect as there is no communication between the host community and the representative, so we are asking that the JCRC be replaced immediately.
“We are asking that the management of NNPC should have an interface with Alode community because the marginalization is unbearable, this is the issue and the protest has been quite peaceful since morning.”
When asked if the management of the NNPC has addressed them, Olaka said, “we were supposed to have a meeting with management this morning, when they came to address us; the security personnel, we actually went into the complex, three representatives, we had that meeting this morning conveyed by security personnel attached to NNPC.
“When they came they demanded that we should get our representative in and then we went in, unfortunately, the marginalization continued, as Alode had only three representation while Alesa had nine persons to go to the round table, we went in to discuss and thought we were going to be having a meeting with the management team, by the end of the day we discovered that it was just the security personnel that were available and that is not the people that are to handle the issue that is bringing about this protest.
“NNPC cannot front the security agencies to come and have a negotiation with the host community while they sit back and continue with their antics and so we are demanding that until the management of NNPC come to address the people of Alode and Alesa as host, we will not end the protest, that is the message.”
He expressed dismay that Alode has graduates, professionals and skilled youths yet a lot of them are unemployed.
