The people of Twon Brass in Bayelsa State, host to Agip’s Crude Export Terminal, have commenced protest over two months power outage in their community.
The host community has never experienced uninterrupted electricity for decades, it was reliably gathered.
It was learnt on Monday that the protest by members of the host community had disrupted activities at the office premises of the oil firm on Brass Island near the Atlantic coastline.
The community members comprising women, youths and leaders had since Friday, May 14 occupied and blocked access to Agip’s operational office, beating drums and singing solidarity songs, demanding immediate restoration of power.
Aggrieved community members are said to have remained adamant as their leaders who went for talks with the oil major’s officials could not get any concrete assurance on how to solve the problem.
Chairman, Twon Brass Community Development Committee, Chief Benjamin Obuala, said on Monday that the power outage began in March 2021 and had crippled economic activities in the coastal settlement.
He lamented that while Agip neglected to fix the power plant that serves the community, the company maintains the gas-fired turbine used for its operations, making the people go through untold economic hardship.
He stated: “We in Twon Brass have been used to having reliable power for a long time now, and this outage which happened has left us in total darkness since March. Before this time the turbine had been having issues and the officials have been making promises for its replacement.
“We have been enduring for more than two months now and the situation has become unbearable. The provision of electricity is a social obligation by Agip to us and we cannot fold our arms when they show insensitivity to our economic interests.
“This power crisis has wrecked our businesses especially fishing as the cold storage facilities are out of service as well as those dealing on perishable food items and our women have said that they can no longer bear it, so we supported them.”
He said the use of generators is not widespread in the community as only few people have them.
He added: “When this outage happened, it caught many people unawares leading to unquantifiable losses but the oil firm has been looking the other way and not doing anything to redeem their unfulfilled pledges.
“The neglect of other social obligations listed in our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) including community development projects, provision of potable water having polluted the Brass canal is also part of our grievances.
“We regret that our efforts to use the appropriate channels to resolve these have all been rebuffed by the management of Agip but he has expressed restraint and kept our protest peaceful.
“We have remained on this protest for four days now and we shall remain resolute until Agip shows concern to our plight.”
When contacted for response, Ms Cioni Maririna, Media Relations Official at Eni, parent company of Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), declined comments.
But a source at the Oil Export Terminal off the Atlantic coastline, who spoke in confidence, confirmed that the facility was not affected by the development as the terminal has a separate turbine that powers it.
