Crisis Brews In Ondo Over Pipeline Surveillance Contract

Feb 26, 2015

Crisis is brewing in the coastal area of Ondo State between Ilaje and Ijaw people over the award of pipeline surveillance contract by the Federal Government.

A group, Ilaje Emancipation and Development Assembly, IEDA, has vowed to resist any attempt to award the surveillance contract only to Arogbo and Apoi-Ijaw people.

In a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, the group claimed that about 1,892,174, 000 barrels of oil had been lifted from Ilaje land by the oil companies operating in the area.

It argued that Ondo was categorised as one of the nine oil-producing states in the country because of the oil production in Ilaje and not because of the presence of Ijaw people.

The group, which added that there was no other tribe inhabiting the coast of Ondo apart from the people of Ilaje of Yoruba extraction, urged the president to order that a lion share of the contract be awarded to Ilaje communities.

The letter signed by the group’s president, Prince Jeffrey Ogunyemi, and its secretary, Om’oba Ezekiel Oyetakin, read in part: “Mr. President Sir, it will interest you to note that of the 18 local government areas in Ondo State, Ilaje, being the only oil-producing local government area, is most impoverished as a direct result of oil degradation, environmental pollution, sea erosion and incursion as well as circumstances where our houses along the coastline have been washed away.

“We are not unaware, Mr. President, that there are lots of agitation and pressure on government by our Ijaw neighbour in Ondo to obtain the pipeline security contract passing through our coastline to the detriment of the people of Ilaje.

“We hereby state categorically that we shall not allow a situation where a non-indigene, persons or group of persons are given a pipeline surveillance contract in respect of the coastline of the state.

“However, where Mr. President is minded to extend benefit of this contract to our Arogbo and Apoi-Ijaw brothers, we, as peace-loving people, shall not be totally against it, provided the lion share of the project comes to Ilaje host communities of the NNPC pipelines.”