Agip

Normalcy has returned to Twon Brass, host to Agip’s Oil Export Terminal in Bayelsa, following suspension of protests over extended power outage in the community.

The protests had grounded economic activities as residents occupied the premises of Agip for more than a week.

Mr Eugene Spiff, a resident of Twon Brass, said that the community suspended the protests following the intervention of the Bayelsa government on Monday.

Spiff explained that the people decided to end the protest to show good faith, and that they were fair in their demands, even though the power supply was yet to be fully restored to the area.

“The decision of the community was based on the intervention of the state government, the grievances  of the people are yet to be addressed.

“The things being demanded were potable water for Brass Island, employment for the youths, amongst others.

“We remained peaceful whilst the protests lasted, as a show of our civilised nature, and if Agip had met its social obligations, the protests would not have been necessary.

“We were pushed to the wall and we hope that the state government prevails on Agip to do the needful,” Spiff said.

Residents had on May 14 blocked the oil firm’s facility, disrupted its activities, to protest alleged two months power outage and neglect of an MoU-backed social obligations by the management of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC).

The management of Eni, the Italian parent company of NAOC, through a statement on May 21, announced the restoration of power supply to the area following repair works to a power cable damaged by thunderstorms.

The announcement followed increased intensity of the protests which turned rowdy on May 19, when the traditional ruler, King Alfred Diette-Spiff, appealed to the protesters to disperse, while their grievances were being discussed with NAOC.

However, the angry mob attacked the King, who had to be whisked away to safely, while a 24 year old man was shot in the melee.

Eni, in a reaction, claimed that power had been restored, adding that the protests did not adversely impact on oil exports from the Brass Terminal.

“An electrical cable connecting the terminal to the community was damaged by a lightning bolt, leaving the Community without electricity. This led to peaceful protests at the Brass terminal gate.

“The repair job has been done on an urgent basis and power to the Community has been fully restored today (Friday May 21).

“Production has not been impacted and we expect the normalization of operations in the next few days,” Eni stated, in the statement.

Eni, Italian parent company of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) has said ongoing protests over power outage at Twon Brass, its host community, did not adversely affect oil export.

The residents of Twon Brass in Bayelsa on May 14,  blocked access and occupied the Brass Terminal gate to demand restoration of power  which had persisted for two months.

Activities at the oil firm’s office in Brass Island and other economic activities were halted by the protest as residents compelled all businesses in the area to close shop in solidarity.

The protest became rowdy on May 19 when the King,  Alfred Diette-Spiff appealed to the protesters to disperse while their grievance were being discussed with NAOC, but the angry mob attacked the traditional ruler  who was whisked out while a 24 year old was shot in the process.

A statement from the management of Eni  claimed that power supply had been restored to Twon Brass.

“An electrical cable connecting the terminal to the community was damaged by a lightning bolt, leaving  the community without electricity. This led to peaceful protests at the Brass terminal gate.

“The repair job has been done on urgent basis and power to the community has been fully restored today (Friday).

“Production has not been impacted and we expect the normalisation of operations in the next few days,” Eni stated.

However,  Mr Taribalalate George, a resident of Twon Brass said that the power situation was yet to stabilise and the people were still at the protest site.

“As we speak, there is no power in Twon Brass but they brought the light yesterday.  It  has been going off and on and we are suspicious that it is a ploy to disperse the people while the power issue persists.

“The protest is still on, because we have so many issued bothering on Agip’s neglect of their social obligations as spelt out in our Memorandum of Understanding,  but it is the power outage that sparked  the protest and we insist all other issues are resolved as well,” George said.

He explained that the community leadership  and some government officials were expected to come to the protest site at Agip’s terminal gate to interact with the protesters and update them on progress made in the negotiations but they did not show up.

The Twon Brass community in Bayelsa, hosts to Agip’s Crude Export Terminal, has begun protests against lingering power outage in the settlement that hitherto had uninterrupted electricity for decades.

The protest by members of Agip host community has disrupted activities at the office premises of the oil firm located on the Brass Island near the Atlantic coastline.

The community members comprising women, youths and elders had since Friday, May 14 occupied and blocked access to Agip’s operational office beating drums and singing solidarity tunes demanding immediate restoration of power.

The aggrieved members of the community have remained adamant as the leaders who were invited for talks with Agip officials could not get any concrete plan to solve the problem.

Chief Benjamin Obuala, Chairman, Twon Brass Community Development Committee,  said the power outage commenced since March and had crippled economic activities in the coastal settlement.

He said it was regrettable that while Agip neglected fixing the power plant that served the community, the company maintains the gas fired turbine used for its operations making the people go through untold economic hardship.

“We in Twon Brass have been used to having reliable power for a long time now, and this outage which happened has left us in total darkness since March.

“Before this time, the turbine had been having issues and the officials have made promises to replace it, but we have been enduring for more than two months now and the situation has become unbearable.

“The provision of electricity is a social obligation by Agip to us and we cannot fold our arms when they show insensitivity to our economic interests.

“This power crisis has wrecked our businesses especially fishing as the cold storage facilities are out of service as well as those dealing on perishable food items and our women have said that they can no longer bear it, so we supported them.

“Here, the use of generators is not widespread as only very few people have generators so when this outage happened it caught many people unawares leading to unquantifiable losses.

“But the oil firm has been looking the other way and not doing anything to redeem their unfulfilled pledges.

“The neglect of other social obligations listed in our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) including community development projects, provision of potable water haven polluted the Brass Canal is also part of our grievances.

“We regret that our efforts to use the appropriate channels to resolve all these have been rebuffed by the management of Agip, but only expressed restraint and kept our protest peaceful.

“We have remained on this protest for four days now and we shall remain resolute until Agip shows concern to our plight,”the CDC Chairman said.

When contacted on the development, Ms Cioni Maririna, Media Relations Official at Eni, parent company of Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) declined comments.

The Oil Export Terminal off fhye Atlantic confirmed that the facility is not affected by the development as the terminal has a separate turbine that powers it.