SPDC’s Marginalization: Youths Spit Fire In Yenagoa

Aggrieved youths of Gbarain Kingdom, in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have sent a Save-Our-Soul message to President Goodluck Jona­than and the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) over alleged threat to the multi-billion naira Gbarain-Ubie Gas gather­ing project due to neglect of oil communities by the Shell Petroleum Develop­ment Company (SPDC).
The angry youths, under the aegis of Gbarain Youth Federation (GYF), in a let­ter endorsed by its President, Akeri Okoro, the Secretary-General, Ebiuge Amakoro­mo and the Public Relations Officer, Ebibibo Uwoube­ingha, noted that though the SPDC operations started in 1972 without disturbance by the natives of the communi­ties in Gbarain Kingdom, the oil company has refused to uplift the standard of liv­ing of the youths and left the communities with airborne diseases, environmental pol­lution and abject poverty which is threatening the gas project.
According to them, the SPDC had been provoking anger in the region by its continued refusal to honour correspondence and its so­cial responsibility clause in its Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU).
The letter read in part: “The entire communities under the Gbarain Kingdom frown at the neglect by the SPDC and a violation of the corporate social responsibil­ity of the company.
“The operations of the oil multinational in Gbarain Kingdom have left the com­munities to suffer abject poverty, air borne diseases and environmental pollution.
“We are baffled and left in dismay that since the SPDC started operation in the area in 1972, the company has virtually done nothing to uplift the living standard of the people in the area. The incessant environmental challenges witnessed in the area are attributed to the SPDC operations, with high incidence of asthma, chronic bronchitis and other health hazards, among the natives of the kingdom.
“We are worried that with the existing pollution of the waters and rivers of the kingdom and the attending hardship, as a result of oil spillages, with destruction of the fishing activities of the people, may provoke a secu­rity breach and threaten the peace in the area.
“The Gbarain Kingdom is responsible for the hosting of the biggest gas production facility in the whole of the West-African region.”###