 |
| Oil spill |
WARRI—ERHOIKE community, Ethiope East Local Government Area of
Delta State, has alleged that residents were being molested by military
personnel guarding an oil flow station operated by the Nigerian Petroleum
Development Company, NPDC, in the community over differences sparked by an oil
spill in the area.
Mr Matthew Oyibocha, President General of Erhoike Community,
said the community’s brush with the soldiers of 222 Battalion, Agbarha Otor,
Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state, which left a woman and two
men hospitalised, resulted from the community’s move to confront NPDC on
perceived irregularities in the attempted clean up of the spill.
He said: “The spill occurred on September 6. We reported the
matter to NPDC, operator of the facility which promised to address the issues.
“We were surprised to see a company on Wednesday September 17, coming in with
youths from Otagbuwe in Kokori community to clean up the spill impacted areas.
“The soldiers claimed they were under the orders of the
Commanding Officer, to deal decisively with. In the process, they shot
sporadically in the air, molested and injured our people.”
Reacting, the Commander, 222 Battalion, Lt. Col. Kenneth Chigbu, denied the allegation.
No comments:
Post a Comment