EPC Mulls Agenda For Eleme Dev

The General Assembly of Eleme People has called on the Rivers State Government and companies operating in the area to intensify efforts towards achieving the sustainable development of Elemeland.
The call was made by the President General O’Ela Obor Eleme, Elder Israel Ejiraobari Gomba-Abbey, during the Eleme People’s Congress (EPC) at Eleme Civic Centre, Ogale, recently.
Gomba-Abbey said the essence of the General Assembly of Eleme People at this time was to take stock and assess how Eleme has fared in politics, education and capacity building, infrastructural development, as well as the impact the companies’ presence has had on the host communities.
He lamented that the people of Eleme have allowed corporate organisations to pitch them against each other to achieve their selfish corporate goals, adding that the area has been stagnant even as other ethnic nationalities in the state are forging ahead progressively through meaningful contributions and development either by their people or companies within the host communities.
The EPC president emphasized that the present level of criminality, insecurity and social vices in Eleme, was shameful and denigrating, regretting that young men in the area take pride in perpetrating evil through involvement in cultism, armed robbery, kidnapping and pipeline vandalism.
He lamented that Eleme, a core nerve-centre of the Nigerian economy, has no roads, potable water, electricity and other social amenities in place, and called for collaborative effort and synergy between the government and companies in Elemeland, particularly Indorama, Notore, Intels, Daewon, PHRC and others, to provide not only 24 hours electricity supply but other basic social amenities for the people of Eleme.
Gomba-Abbey charged the companies to assess their level of compliance with their corporate social responsibilities (CSRs) to their host communities as provided by relevant laws, including the Nigerian Content Law, among others, and give employment opportunities to qualified Eleme sons and daughters.
He called on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to consider Eleme in its 2017 development projects execution plan, stressing that from the NDDC’s proposed 300 sustainable development projects to be executed across the state; Eleme was not given even one single project.
Also speaking, the former chairman, Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue Service (RSBIR), Ms Onene Osila Obele–Oshoko, called for collaborating efforts between the federal and state governments as well as the companies operating in Eleme to fast-track the sustainable development of the area.
She said that the synergy will promote better understanding among the various stakeholders in the development of the area.
In his remarks in a lecture titled, “Tackling Insecurity and Cultism through Community Policing”, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Zaki, advocated for partnership between the community people and the police to check crimes and criminality.
The occasion was graced by major stakeholders and eminent personalities from Eleme, including company representatives, clergymen, as well as other indigenes and non-indigenes residing in Elemeland.

Philip Okparaji