Some angry women of Egiland in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State have threatened to shut down operations of oil multinational, Total E&P in the area for allegedly not giving them royalty.
Leader of the women and the Ada Eze of Egi Kingdom, Her Majesty, Princess Onuoha told newsmen that they have tolerated Total enough, adding that it was time to shut down the operations of the company.
The female monarch said, “we dragged Total before the State Ministry of Chieftaincy and Community Affairs over our royalty in 2018.
“Total refused to appear before the ministry and went behind to file petitions against us that we are not qualified to receive royalty from the company.
“The ministry investigated the petitions and discovered that we are entitled to receive royalty from Total.
“The Ministry, therefore, ordered Total to start paying us royalty which the company accepted to be doing.
“As I speak to you now, Total has not given us kobo since the day the order was given in our favour.
“We have used several friendly and legitimate ways to approach Total and we have noticed that the company has deliberately refused to give us our royalty.
“We, the women of Egi will meet to finalize on measures we will use to shut down Total.
“We will prove to Total that we have all it takes to shut down oil operations in our land and we will use Total as an example.”
Efforts to speak with the company yielded no result at the time of this report.
