RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Protesting Women Seize another Chevron Facility

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Jul 19 2002 (IPS) - A group of women protesters, who seized another oil facility in Nigeria on Friday, is demanding 500-million-naira (about 3.5-million-U.S.-dollar) compensation from Chevron for “years of neglect of their communities”.

“If Chevron wants to continue to operate on our land, our demands must be met,” said Josephine Ogoba, leader of the Ijaw Women group in the oil-rich Niger Delta Region.

In their 40-point demand, the women, who numbered around 3,000, said the American company should rename Escravos TankFard and Terminal – the largest oil facilities in the area – Abiteye and Otunana Stations to reflect their Ijaw origin.

They also want Chevron to build two modern palaces for their kingdoms: Gharamatu and Eghema. They want Chevron to embark on electrification and housing projects in about nine host communities to improve the environmental and living conditions of the local people.

“Chevron must demonstrate convincing commitment to redress the issue of environmental degradation, underdevelopment, unemployment and marginalisation that have plagued the host communities in the last three decades,” said Ogoba.

The other demands include provision for hostels, staff quarters, library and science laboratory for schools and training centres to provide skilled courses for unemployed men and women.

Ogoba said women took over the campaign from men because men had vandalised oil facilities in the past. “Women are level-headed and see no need for destruction actions,” she explained.

Lt-Col. Gar Dogo, the commanding army officer in the area, has ordered his soldiers not to molest the women.

“I personally instructed them (the soldiers) not to harm any of the women, but only to ensure that they (women) do not destroy any property there,” he was quoted as saying by local newspapers on Friday.

The four oil facilities, seized by the Ijaw women, produce about 110 barrels of crude per day.

The seizure, on Friday, came just one day after more than 2,000 women, from the Itshekiri communities, ended their stand-off with Chevron following negotiations between the multi-national oil company and community leaders.

“We signed an agreement with the protesting women late yesterday (Wednesday) and they left the facilities this morning,” said Sola Omole, the company’s spokesperson.

“We expect that the agreement will help put a permanent end to the frequent seizures of our staff and facilities by restless youths in the region,” he said.

In the late 1990s such violence had disrupted production to such an extent that it sometimes reduced Nigeria’s daily crude oil output of about two million barrels by up to a third.

The government depends on crude exports for more than 90 percent of its export income.

Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) is the third largest oil company operating in the Niger Delta Region, exporting 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The Itshekiri women, who initially numbered about 150 when the strike began on Jul 8, occupied Chevron’s airstrip, docks and stores. With their number gradually rising to over 2,000, they prevented aircraft from landing and boats from docking at the terminal, which is surrounded by swamps, creeks and the Atlantic Ocean.

The women, who were unarmed, had demanded jobs for their sons and investment in the impoverished Ugborodo and Arutan communities, which lie in the shadow of the Chevron Escravos plant. The Ugborodo community has long demanded more access to employment and funding from the oil firm.

The disruption of oil operations is common in the Niger Delta, where impoverished local people accuse oil companies and the Nigerian government of neglecting them despite the huge oil wealth pumped from their land. They also accuse the oil firms of degrading their environments and economic activities, mainly from fish farming and peasant agricultural activities, through oil spillage and pollution.

However, seizures of platforms or oil production sites had in the past been undertaken by armed gangs of local youths who often threaten to kill staff or burn down the plant unless their demands were met. This is the first time women had taken over oil plant.

Restive youths in the Niger Delta region, apart from seizing oil facilities, had often embarked on the tapping of siphoning of petroleum products from oil pipelines that transverse the region. The youths are alleged to have blasted some sections of the pipeline or drilled holes into the pipes from where they siphon the product for sale.

Bunkering, which is a common practice, had in 1998 led to the death of more than 1,000 villagers in Jesse, some five kilometres from Warri, Delta State, as they scooped refined petroleum from a burst pipe, which caught fire, leading to a huge explosion that consumed them.

The crisis in the Niger Delta Region heightened in 1995 when the government of the late military ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha, executed renowned environmentalist and author ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his kinsmen from the oil-producing Ogoni community, sparking international outcry.

Energy watcher, Sesan Ade, has warned of more unrest in the region. “Chevron should be ready for more seizures. First, it was the Itshekiris, now the Ijaw women are making their demands and stopping work on the company’s flow stations, the Urhobos — the third largest ethnic group in the region — will also make their demands. That is how serious it is. Chevron should be ready for a long crisis,” he says.