Akwa Ibom Communities Protest Violation Of Local Content Law

Angry youths drawn from the oil producing communities in Mbo local government area of Akwa Ibom State yesterday staged a mass protest, accusing an indigenous oil firm, Oriental Energy Resources Limited, of breaching the community content guidelines as enshrinement in the Nigeria Content Board (NCB) Act.

The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “Oriental, Stop Flouting  Local Content Law”, “Relocate Your Operational Base”, “Enough of this Marginalization in Employment and Contract Awards”, “Our People Have the Qualifications to Work in Oriental”, “Mbo has Community Contractors”, “We Demand Fair Play, Equity and Justice”, ‘NCDMB Save Our Souls”, amongst others.

The protesters marched through the streets of Ibaka, a coastal town bordering the Atlantic ocean , drumming and chanting anti – Oriental Energy song, while the Police provided tight security to prevent  the youths from taking the laws into their hands.

However, the Mbo Youths’ president, Comrade Edwards Moses, who led the protest expressed dismay that the company has sidelined the people of the area in employment and contract awards notwithstanding the provisions of the nation’s content law.

He said, “Oriental Energy has breached the local content board regulations on engagement. The community content guidelines stipulate that oil companies operating in a community should as a matter of policy give youths of the community 100 percent unskilled labour, 50 semi – skilled and at least 20 percent of skilled labour, but Oriental has not deemed it fit to do so as contained in Section 4 , sub section 1-4 of Nigeria Content Act 2010.

“As a matter of policy, all the servicing companies working for Oriental are supposed to come from the community, but we have it on good authority that Oriental has advised them not to relate with the people in the community because Oriental has refused to insert community content in their award of contracts.

“Mbo is blessed with all categories of workers ranging from unskilled to skilled labour but the company has blatantly refused to give our people equal opportunity to excel. Of the 300 to 400 unskilled labour working offshore, only two are from Mbo. We appeal to the company to respect the local content law in its operations. If they think they have office in Lagos, we own the platform in our waters.”

He, therefore, appealed to the managing director (MD) of the company, Mustafa Indimi, to look into the grievances of the communities, even as he urged Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to prevail on the oil firm to follow due process in its operations.

Also, the women leader, Mrs Rebecca Edet Bassey, added: “All that we are asking for is empowerment of youths and women. This is an area that produces the wealth which makes Akwa Ibom number one oil producer in the country yet we are living in poverty. Our people have been marginalized by the oil companies operating in our area. We appeal to them to have a change of heart.”

On his part, a student leader, Victor Okon Ukutuda, said the communities have over the years provided peaceful and enabling environment for it to operate, advising that such friendly disposition should not be taken for granted.

Indimi could not be reached as of the time of filling this report, but the chairman of community Development Committee, Mfon Etim Henry, praised the company for carrying out its  Corporate Social Responsibility in the area and that the protesters were exercising their fundamental human rights to demand for a fair share in the scheme of things.

“Oriental Energy has been a very good company as evident in the litany of projects they have embarked on in the area. But the only problem is the non-compliance with the local content law in terms of employment and engagement of community contractors in offshore operations. This attitude has incited the youths to go on a protest. The CDC therefore appeals to Oriental to address their grievances before it gets out hand,” he said.