Group urges Kachikwu to stop holding selective meetings in Niger Delta

Nembe community disrupts Agip oil operations

A Niger Delta advocacy group, the Grassroots Initiative for Peace and Social Orientation (GIPSO), has warned the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, to stop frustrating the peace process in the region by his selective town hall meetings.

GIPSO said the minister’s alleged selective town hall meetings with some groups and former militant leaders in the region was capable of creating tension and dividing interests against the peace package put together by the Federal Government for the region.

The group in a statement in Yenagoa yesterday signed by its National Co-ordinator, Mr. Richard Akinaka, urged the minister to engage the critical stakeholders in the Niger Delta instead of giving undue advantage to those it described as ‘’blackmailers of the Federal Government.’’

In another development, hundreds of youths and women from Egebekiri community in Nembe Local Council of Bayelsa State, yesterday disrupted oil production for hours at the Obama flow-station operated by Nigeria Agip Oil Company.

The community folks were protesting against the multinational oil firm for its alleged neglect of the community. The community lamented that despite a Supreme Court judgment of July 13, 2007, which confirmed them as the legal owners of the land hosting the oilfields, Agip had continued to give their rights and benefits to some persons in neighbouring communities.

Meanwhile, several calls to the Public Relations Officer (PRO), Agip, Dan Onyeghala, to get his comment on the matter, indicated that his mobile phone was not reachable.