Rivers: Ex-council boss cries out over alleged neglect of Soku community

Former Caretaker Committee Chairman of Akuku Toru Local Government Council, Hon. Christian Otiasah, has decried the alleged neglect of Soku community, hosting Soku flow station and Soku gas plant, Africa’s largest gas plant in the council area by both the state government and the oil companies operating in the state.

Speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, Hon. Otiasah said the people have been suffering from environmental degradation without anybody, company or institution coming to their rescue.

He said that sometime in the past, pollution occurred in the area spreading condensate to the river around, which conflagrated both fishermen and even marine life.

He said: “Between 1994 and 2005, condensate oil polluted Soku environment with a massive loss of vegetation and aquatic life. Fingerlings were destroyed. Fishermen came back home empty even during deep fishing periods. The condensate caused surface fire. Innocent fishermen and periwinkle pickers were burnt and over 500 of them died.
“Not even one agency of government reported it apart from one Zabey that reported it in his Master’s work. SHELL has remained quiet. You can see the conspiracy of silence. Today, if you go to Soku, there is no roof that is not rusty. It is rusty because the deposition that falls on them are acidic”.

Otiasah said even the state government led by Governor Nyesom Wike did not like Kalabari people as he had allegedly bitterly complained about the boundary status of Soku ceded to Bayelsa State, which had left the people of the community suffering from hosting the oil exploration while the revenue and benefits went to Bayelsa State.

“There is a boundary issue that has to be determined by National Boundary Commission but primarily it has to be propelled by the state government. The governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, has done nothing and from day one, we were afraid he does not have what it takes to fight for Soku oil wells and today he is proving us right. You can say there is no money to carry out physical projects. Do you need money to constitute state boundary committee that should be headed by the deputy governor?

“That is why I say this present government hates the Kalabari people. Ex-governor Chibuike Amaechi took the boundary matter seriously. That was one of the reasons why he had problem with Ex-President Jonathan. Now, you have the Petroleum industry governance bill gradually being enacted and when it is enacted, one of the salient points of that bill is host community right and the basis on which host community right should be distributed and allocated is boundary and what you own. Today, Soku community does not own anything. They say we live on the land but everything we own belongs to Bayelsa and the Rivers State government is very comfortable.

“Maybe, the governor is waiting when 2019 approaches, he makes it a campaign issue. The state Assembly is silent. The chairman of traditional rulers’ council is quiet. There seem to me there is a conspiracy against the Kalabari man.

They want a situation where if the Kalabari is balkanized, we become minority in Rivers and Bayelsa and we go into oblivion. That is what the Wike’s government wants to achieve.

“The Soku man is lost. The Soku environment has been rated as common environment that is owned by nobody and everybody can come and exploit it at will,” he said.

Otiasah appealed to the federal and state governments to intervene and give respite to the oil bearing communities of Soku before the matter gets out of hand.

Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt