By: Felix Ikpotor
Host communities and youths of Ogoni in Rivers State, Monday morning, paralysed economic activities at the Eleme axis of the state as they protested the refusal of the Federal Government to fix the Akpajo-Eleme axis of the East-West Road.
The protest comes barely a day before the mother- of-all protest slated for (Tommorrow) Tuesday by the Ogoni Peoples Assembly in conjunction with other concerned groups in the area.
The protesters who barricaded the road with heavy equipments demanded that the federal government should order contractors to site immediately.
The Akpajo bridge has collapsed severally with the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs doing intervention works at every incident.
The youths who marched onto the road as early as 6:00am Monday, with placards bearing inscriptions such as ‘Privatise NNPC’, ‘Eleme deserves good roads’, ‘Indorama give Eleme light or leave Eleme’ etc said their action is as a result of the hardship meted out to them by companies operating in the area.
The area houses the Onne Oil/Gas Free Trade Zone Authority, Onne seaport, Nigeria National Petroluem Corporation, Eleme Petrochemicals Company, the Eleme Refinery, Indorama, Nigeria Ports Authority amongst others
Before now, the Chairman of Eleme Council, Obarilomate Ollor had met with the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment where he lamented the poor state of the road and the lack of corporate social responsibility by the over 400 companies operating in the area.
PHSpectator recalls that youths of the area had earlier given the company a 14-days ultimatum in June 17 to begin construction work on the road.
