Oro Youths Vow to Blow-up Oil Pipelines if...

*give govt 14 days ultimatum to do needful

•say militancy not by birth but choice

By Joseph Atainyang

Youths of Oro Nation in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria have vowed to blow-up oil pipelines in their area to show the state government that they were core oil producing community.

In a six-hour protest in Oron main town yesterday, the youths under the aegis of Oro Youth Congress called out Akwa Ibom government "to immediately end the criminal exclusion of Oro from core oil producing community and oil bearing area of the state".

Speaking at Uya-Oro Junction, the central entry point of Oro Nation, the convener of Oro Youth Congress, Lovestic Esu, Esq pronounced "a 14-day ultimatum for both the state government and ExxonMobil to implement the resolution of the House of Representatives in recognizing the five local government areas of Oro Nation as oil bearing and oil producing."

"Where they fail to meet our demands, we have no option than shut down oil pipelines of companies operating on our soil. We can't be producing the wealth of the nation and we continue to live in poverty", he said.

Also speaking, a social crusader Omen Bassey, Esq and a youth activist, Mr Patrick Edeke stated that while Mobil and other oil companies have operated in Oro community for over 50 years, the Nation has been marginalized and made to suffer unmitigated environmental degradation.

The duo who lamented the level of poverty, hunger and joblessness among their people, even when "multiples of strangers were offered employment opportunities in the oil companies", insisted they "must immediately be gazetted as host community and oil producing community".

In their separate speeches, the President, Oro International Youths Forum, Christian Nyong, Esq, his predecessor, Dr Sunday Odokwo and the President, Amalgamated Voices of Oro Youths, Noble Francis Otioro, together with the President, Oron Union, Women Wing, Mrs Felicia Essang Oludare stated that Oro's peaceful nature must not be taken for granted as Militancy and Boko Haram were not by birth.

They opposed the "criminal torture and oppression of Oro people by the state government", saying it was time to change the story. "We've been peaceful for too long and our peace is too costly. All we need is our rights", they said.

Similarly, the President of Oro Youths Movement (OYOM), Comrade Victor Mkpofor pointed out that the protest was "a signal to all security agencies, including the Inspector General of Police, the Director of State Security Service, the National Security Adviser, among others, that Oro people were pushed to the wall and were ready to fight back".

Comrade Mkpofor maintained that having watched the state government take Oro land to build airport which they can't access by reason of road block, added that apart from the struggle of oil producing community, Oro will not sit back and watch the government build a seaport on their land and water, while the gate is built elsewhere.

It could be recalled that a resolution of the House of Representatives passed in 2012, sent to the federal executive council and further endorsed by the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, had mandated the Akwa Ibom State government and other agencies of government to recognize Oro Nation as oil bearing and producing community.

Recall also, that the House of Representatives had last week, through a duly endorsed letter, reiterated its call for the Akwa Ibom government to implement its 2012 directive of recognizing Oro as oil producing and causing oil companies within its shores to pay reparation to the Oro people.

Oro Nation, the largest federal constituency in Nigeria, is made up of five local government areas of Oron, Urue Offong/Oruko, Mbo, Udung Uko and Okobo.

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