Community threatens Agip oilfield

Militant youths from a community in southeastern Nigeria have threatened to sabotage production at an oilfield of the Italian firm, Agip, if no agreement is reached on their demands for jobs and amenities, youth leaders told IRIN on Tuesday.

‘The Comet’, a Lagos daily, reported on Monday that the Federated Union of Epebu Students in the state of Bayelsa had issued a statement accusing the oil company of having “neglected the community in all its 37 years of operation in the area”.

The student leaders gave this as their reason for deciding not to allow Agip to begin production at its new Asaraba oilfields without meeting their demands.

Youth leaders told IRIN on Tuesday that they wanted Agip to pull out of all areas inhabited by the Ijaw ethnic group as demanded by the umbrella Ijaw Youths Council (IYC). They also want the oil company to do an environmental impact assessment of the villages sorrounding the oilfield and begin discussions with the community towards meeting its demands.

“The community has had a longstanding disagreement lasting a number of years now with Agip over its operations on their land,” Isaac Osuoka, spokesman of IYC told IRIN. He also confirmed that the IYC had demanded that Agip halt its operations in Ijaw areas, alleging atrocities by the company against their minority.

“More than any other oil company operating in Nigeria, Agip has invited soldiers frequently to shoot our people when they protest,” Osuoka added in reference to an incident last year when security guards had shot dead nine members of a group that had besieged an Agip facility at nearby Olugbobiri.

Agip officials said on Tuesday that they were aware of the threats and demands being made by the community, but pointed out that they were only obliged to do what was lawful.

“There are laws governing our operations in Nigeria, and we try to follow them all the time and at the same time accommodate the demands of our host communities where they are realistic,” one official told IRIN.