Bodo Women Fault Julius Berger On Bodo/Bonny Road

Women, numbering about 200, from Bodo Community in Gokhana Local Government Area of Rivers State, have staged a peaceful protest over the ongoing construction of the Bodo/Bonny Road.
The women, who took to the streets on Wednesday, claimed that the construction activities being carried out by Julius Berger Construction Company, posed a threat to their survival.
The women, who were accompanied by their children, alleged that the construction company had blocked the creeks and channels to their fishing routes.
The leader of the protesting women, Mrs Priscilla Barile, lamented that the action of the construction company, jeopardised their fishing business, thereby throwing them into untold hardship.
Barile stated that since November 2018, when the construction company resumed and blocked the creeks, they had not been able to do any fishing business, adding that they no longer have access to the mangrove.
She alleged that Julius Berger failed to create an alternative channel for them and charged the construction giants to compensate them for disrupting their means of livelihood as well as create alternative channels for them.
Barile, who spoke in Pidgin English, called on the state governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, to intervene on their behalf, by calling on the construction company to take measures that would alleviate their suffering.
After a long wait outside the Government House premises with no official of the government coming to address them, the women left their protest letter with the security agents at the Government House gate for onward transmission to the governor.
Our correspondent reports that efforts to get the reactions of the Julius Berger proved abortive.

Tonye Nria-Dappa