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Hundreds of residents of Tambiri in Yenagoa Local Government comprising youths, women and elders yesterday blocked the access road to the oil wells singing solidarity songs amidst rhythms from local musical instruments.
They disrupted oil production at Adibawa Oil field operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), shutting two oil wells.
New telegraph gathered that two oil wells, Adibawa well 4 and Adibawa well 10 feeding the Adibawa flow station were shut down by the protesters who demanded power supply from the nearby oil facility.
Mr Oyeso Atena, Youth President of Biseni Community said that they were aggrieved over the failure of SPDC for failure to link the community to a power plant located at Adibawa flow station despite several meetings.
“We took the step as a last resort following several talks, the oil firm had given us hope but they later backed out by telling us that the transmission line to our community is not strong enough cannot carry the power.
“We have several oil wells here and merely shutting two of them have put the entire Adibawa flow station out of action and that shows that without the oil wells from here, the flow station cannot fire and we are just asking that they give us electricity from that facility.
“We are not asking for too much for a company that has operated here since 1972 and there is no history of hostage taking, no attack on oil workers, and no incident of vandalism of facilities.
“Our expectation is that they reciprocate our peaceful dispositions and not take our peaceful nature for weakness, we have vowed to remain here until they respond to us,” the youth leader said.
When contacted Spokesman of the Joint Task Force deployed to protect oil facilities in the Niger Delta region said that he had no information on the incident saying that would verify the claim and respond.
Source: NewTelegraph