Agip Contractors Seek MD’s Sack …Barricade PH Office

Hundreds of protesting contractors of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), last Wednesday, stormed the operational headquarters of the company in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, calling for the immediate removal of its Managing Director.

The protesting contractors, who blocked the entrance to the premises for over an hour, were later dispersed by soldiers, who swiftly cordoned off the main entrance gate and prevented the protesters from causing any further disruption of work.

The protest also affected motorists plying the Agip-Eagle Island route, as the long traffic stalled human and vehicular movement to and from both sides of the link road.

Soldiers and other stern looking security operatives who barricaded the road only allowed pedestrians and motorists that identified themselves as staff of the oil company to go through the road to the premises of the company while every other person was turned back.

The contractors, drawn from Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers States and other parts of the Niger Delta region said, they were also landlords to the oil company, adding that they had not been paid  for clearing the pathway for pipelines laid by the oil giant which they tagged ‘bush clearing’.

They said all efforts to persuade the oil giant to keep to its part of the contractual agreement had been rebuffed.

Spokespersons for the protesters, Segun Akobade, Wariboko Ogbeni and His Royal Highness, Tailor Patrick, from Bayelsa State, who spoke to newsmen, said they were forced to take the protest option to demand payment of their money because of the frustration meted out to them by officials of the company, adding that they were surprised that the soldiers were mobilised to stop them from marching to the gate of the oil company.

Some of the protesters, who also came from Oleh, in Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, said that the oil company should remove its pipelines from their areas, if it was not ready to pay them for the job they did.

The Tide gathered that following the protest, the management of Agip had invited leaders of the contractors to a meeting within the premises of the company to resolve their differences.

However, the terms of the agreement from the peace parley were not made available as at press time, yesterday.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana & Kinika Mpi