Itsekiri oil producing communities in Edo allege marginalisation

By Ikenna Asomba

LEADERS of Itsekiri oil producing communities in Edo State, namely, Ajamimogha, Ajoki, Kolokolo, Ajatiton and Ikara, yesterday, lamented what they described as their continued marginalisation over the years by successive administrations in the stata, despite being the major area that makes the state one of the oil producing states in the country.
Leaders of the communities, under the aegis of Leaders Forum of Itsekiri Oil and Gas Producing Communities, LFIOGPC, have meanwhile called on the state governor, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, to change their situation, urging him to compel the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to give urgent attention to their communities in terms of infrastructural development.

In a statement by its President, Samuel Ireokane, they said: “As a matter of fact, we have not witnessed a situation where the state or local government officially commissions government project in these communities, despite being key oil and gas communities, which makes the state to be regarded as one of the oil and gas producing states in Nigeria.
“Non-oil and gas producing communities in the state are benefiting more than us, making our situation to be like the goose that lays the golden egg, but yet circumvented in the benefits and dividends due to them in the scheme of things. This is very pathetic because we suffer the environmental degradation and destruction of our aquatic lives.
“Furthermore, the NDDC and Edo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, EDSOPADEC, were created to drive the development of these oil and gas producing communities in the state, but rather than concentrate on developing the affected communities, the communities have not received a single infrastructural project from them.”