By Ayodele Oni
Oil Producing Communities in Ondo state have accused Chevron Nigeria Ltd of igniting another crisis that is capable of impacting on Oil Production activities in the Ilaje Offshore territory of Ondo State.
Communities in Ugbo Land are the mandate areas of Chevron Nigeria Ltd Offshore Operations in Ondo State.
A statement signed by seven leaders of the Communities claimed that “from time immemorial they have been continually short-changed by Chevron Nigeria Ltd, while other ethnic groups are usually favoured in terms of allocations of Opportunities and Benefits.
“The most recent is the fraud against the collective interest of the Communities of Ilaje Offshore Operations by Chevron Nigeria Ltd in relation to the Shallow Water drilling (Project Panther) that is about to commence now.
“As paragraph 3 of our inauguration letter still in force, we unequivocally demand for the reversal of the erroneously and purportedly sent jobs opportunity mail to the yet unregistered Ugbo Trust and channel same jobs opportunities to which should includes all benefits, opportunities, entitlements and privileges accruable to communities from the upcoming Drilling operations.
“It will interest everyone to know that all the equipment for the Panther drilling Project have been hijacked by Chevron top managerial staff in favour of different contractors where they have interest as no single one was given to any Ilaje Contractors despite the fact that some of our local Contractors participated in the Equipment Supply bidding process for the Panther Drilling Project.
“Outside the bidding, the usual practice is that the local contractors from Ilaje are supposed to be nominated for supply of equipment. All this process has been compromised by Chevron PGPA for their personal interest.
“We therefore challenge Chevron Nigeria Limited to disclose the total numbers and identities of the Call Off Contractors shortlisted for this Drilling Operations.
“The Communities of Ugbo hereby strongly demands that their due benefits in terms of Equipment Supply, Call Out Contracts and other Entitlements should be communicated and given to us before mobilization and not more than 72 hours from the date of this press release.”
