By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Isoko Agip Cluster 19 Host and Transit communities, Delta State, have issued a 14-day ultimatum to the management of Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, to sign a Global Memorandum of Understanding, GMoU, with them, or quit operations in Isoko land.
They also told the company to take tangible steps to cite a gas turbine in Irri that would be source of electricity to the affected and impacted communities, warning that they would mobilise and occupy NOAC’s facilities in the various communities “If this timely ultimatum is not heeded.”
The communities, in a letter addressed to NAOC’s Manager, Stake Holders Management and Community Development Division, demanded that the company “Present the Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA report for Irri, Idheze and Oleh covering the operations of your company in these communities.”
The letter by the Cluster’s Chairman, Chief Godday Igorigo, Secretary, Rev Richman Idisi and others lamented that the MoU the company had with the various communities under the Cluster had “Expired for several years and were not renewed under the guise of migrating to a GMoU that will be a legal document to regulate the relation between your company and the host and transit communities.
“With this guise too, for over the past 13 years of your companies operation in the host and transit communities, your company has not executed a single project in any of the communities by way of social responsibility to the communities that lay the golden eggs.“
“Instead, it has been tales of environmental degradation and pollution from your company’s operation and gas flaring activities with no project to show for it in return.’’
Source: Vanguard