Hundreds of aggrieved indigenes of Eleme Local Government Area in Rivers State on Monday blocked the main entrance to a fertiliser company, Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited, located along the East West Road in Rivers State.
The protesters, who are mostly old women and youths, had accused the fertiliser company and Elano Investment Limited of marginalising six communities playing host to Indorama.
Some of the protesters, who were clad in black tops, were said to have stormed the place at about 6.30am, calling for the removal of the Managing Director of Indorama, Mr. Manish Mundra.
They claimed that some of the funds accruing to them (host communities) were diverted to private pockets by the management of Elano Investment.
Some of the women, who were seen preparing meals on the main road, ostensibly for their breakfast, disrupted movement into and out of the petrochemical company.
Elano Investment is the company that accesses the shares accruing to the host community from Indorama.
But the relationship among the three; Indorama, Elano and the host community went sour when the indigenes said they had been short-changed in the scheme of things.
Speaking with newsmen, the leader of the protesters, Mr. Benjamin Ngokanya, explained that Elano refused to remit funds accruing to the host community.
Ngokanya expressed the need for Indorama to begin to pay the dividends accruing to the host communities directly to them without considering routing it through any third party.
He also demanded that the employment quota for the host communities should be given directly to the communities while the Memoranda of Understanding signed by the petro-chemical firm and the communities should be well documented.
Calling on the police to expose those behind the killing of an Eleme youth identified as Aji Ngoya, the leader of the protesters said Ngoya was murdered due to recent agitation by host communities for the payment of their dividends.
“We will be here for days until they meet our demands. The entire host communities of Indorama are here. What we are saying is that whatever is our due should be given to the communities. This is what justice to us is,” Ngokanya stressed.
He claimed that the managing director of Indorama connived with Elano Investment to deny them of their (host communities) dividends since the privatisation of the firm (Indorama) some years ago.
