An indigenous oil company, Belema Oil Producing Limited, has promised to minimize the issue of vandalism and restiveness through a better relationship, empowerment and scholarship for the members of the host communities.
The company said it will continue to do more in the area of employment and community development as to maintain the existing peace within the jurisdiction of its operation.
Speaking at the first meeting of the newly inaugurated Board of Directors of the company, the founder/president of Belema Oil Producing Limited, Mr Jackrich Tein, said the company is giving more attention to cooperate socio-responsibility.
Tein who has employed more than 700 youths from the host communities in the area said if the company must succeed the host communities must be given the attention and respect not as members of the community but as stakeholders.
He noted that to fight vandalism, restiveness and hostility in the Niger Delta region, the youth must be given the opportunity to serve, adding that even when they don’t have the skill, effort should be made to train them in the areas of their priority.
He called on the youths of Niger Delta to eschew violence and pipeline vandalism, stressing that aggressive agitation cannot solve any problem rather it will endanger the people and their environment.
He said: “Today, we have our first board of Directors meeting, I have handed over the company’s chairmanship position to Mr Nedo Osayande and I’m now the president/founder of the company and other key positions were also appointed just to reposition the company to be among the best in the world.
“The only way to sustainable cohesion and peace is to involve host communities in the frontiers of ventures of this nature. We are involving them by creating a huge employment opportunity for them. Give them relevant contracts, even if they don’t have the capacity but you teach then on how to form partnership and them they can showcase that ability to pursue their goal.
“Involving them is also to increase production, since we took over, production has been going high. We took over at 1,400 barrels a day but now we produce more than that a day. This is because there has been a lot of cohesion within the local communities”.
Meanwhile, Mr Boma Brown is now the new Managing Director of Belema oil producing limited, Mr Adebayo Babalola is the Vice President and Mr Fonseca Avworo is now the Executive Vice President/secretary while Faith Akogwu is the acting CFO and Mr Pedro Diaz Deputy Managing Director of the company.