By: Felix Ikpotor
The Nigeria Army 6 Division, Port Harcourt, has denied reports that its personnel invaded K-Dere community, in Gokana Local Government area.
One Nen-Elkpege Lezor was reportedly killed while two other persons were left with life-threatening injuries in the attack.
However, the Army said boys in the area attacked the military personnel leading to the confrontation.
Spokesman of the division, Col. Aminu Iliyasu in a statement in Port Harcourt said: “The community was at no time invaded. The bad boys who set fire on the TNP and infracting the lines, attacked the SPDC technical crew by firing fiercely for more than three hours from the evil forest as they call it, which can only be accessed through the community from the direction the firing was coming from.’’
We gather that there was a spill from one of the oil facility owned by the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, in B-Dere and Kpor communities of Gokana Local Government.
While Shell workers tried to access the site and repair the damage, they had altercations between indigenes of the community leading to the attack by the Army.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Kegbara-Dere Town Council, Dornu Godswill, has disagreed with the Army’s statement, stressing that their communities are under siege by the military.
According to him: “On April 18, 2019, I was returning from the hospital and I saw Shell vehicles parked at Kpor trunk line. I had to find out what the problem was. I was informed that there was an oil spill.
“I was worried that they did not inform the community. Immediately, I called on the president to stay with them.
“I later heard that some people obstructed their activities. They invited us to give them access to the spill site.”
He explained that oil thieves had set the spill at Kpor ablaze, adding that three of the thieves died at the spot.
“On the 18th of April, around 10 pm, we heard a loud sound but we later found out that the oil spill at Kpor area was on fire.
“Our boys did not do it. We only heard that some oil bunkerers that were cooking products around that area caused it.” he said.
Similarly, the Legborsi Pyagbara led faction of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has decried the alleged attack on the Ogoni communities.
The body said it was unfair for SPDC to move into the community without consulting the people of the area.
