Community protests against Agip, demands road construction to oilfields

Residents of Ikarama community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have embarked on a peaceful protest to request the Nigerian Agip Oil Company to construct a two-kilometer access road to its oilfields in the area.

Hundreds of community members, who sang solidarity songs and danced around the riverside settlement, made the demand during an advocacy rally at Ikarama on Monday.

Speaking at the event, the monarch of the community, Chief Herbertson Alfred, bemoaned a scenario where officials of Agip pass through neighbouring communities in Rivers State to access its Ikarama oilfields, a distance of approximately 16 kilometers.

He said that the practice made it difficult for the community to monitor movements of unscrupulous people, whom he claimed, often vandalised pipelines at the oilfields, to create the wrong impression that Ikarama people were vandals.

He said that the people had presented its request for construction of the two-kilometer access road in writing and had been deploying peaceful and persuasive means to make Agip see reason with the plight of the people.

The monarch said, “Agip started operating in Ikarama forests in 1984. When they started operations there, the oil firm said they did not have the resources to construct a bridge across the Ikarama river and opted to pass through Idagbare in Rivers.

“That route is awkward and causes a lot of problems. It is like a visitor passing through the window or kitchen to enter someone’s house. We want Agip to come into Ikarama through our entrance and not through the window.

“Fortunately, another oil firm operating in the area has constructed a solid bridge across Ikarama river to their own location in Ikarama. So, it has become very easy and the community will give them the land at no cost because the road will open up the nearby areas.

“Construction of the access road will be a win-win situation for all of us. We have on several occasions appealed to Agip to do the road. We want other stakeholders to prevail on the oil firm to take advantage of cooperation and work with us to unlock our potential.”

He stated that contrary to the perception that Ikarama was notorious for oil spills from pipeline sabotage, the breaches in the oilfields were perpetrated by people who usually gained access through other communities.

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