Posted by By Bisi Olaniyi and Atser Godwin on
Aggrieved youths on Wednesday morning shut the Ogboinbiri Flow Station of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company in the Southern.....
Aggrieved youths on Wednesday morning shut the Ogboinbiri Flow Station of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State.
Our correspondent learnt that the station was shut over the Italian oil giant's alleged refusal to enter into a new Memorandum of Understanding with the coastal community, following the recent expiration of a former one.
Hundreds of Ogboinbiri youths invaded the station in the early hours of the day and chased away workers at the station.
An indigene of the community told our correspondent in Yenagoa that the military personnel on guard was helpless.
The middle-aged man, who craved anonymity, maintained that the flow station would not be reopened until the management of the oil company agreed to sign a fresh MoU with the community.
The community is also asking for more jobs.
The Bayelsa State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Victor Akenge, refused to answer the many calls to his mobile line from 1:55 pm, but one of his aides who would not want his name in print, confirmed the shutting of the flow station.
The aide said a team comprising the commissioner, some directors of the ministry and other top government officials was about leaving for Ogboinbiri, as at 3:05 pm, to assess the situation.
Agip has suffered two disruptions to its operations in the same area in the past five months.
On July 12, two suspected explosions on an Agip pipeline caused an unspecified cut in production that has since been restored, according to Nigerian authorities.
An attack on the same pipeline in March resulted in the loss of 75,000 bpd for several weeks.
Agip declined to give details concerning Wednesday's attack on output shut in.
'I do not have information on that yet," spokesman for Agip, Mr. Tajudeen Adigun, said in a text message to our correspondent.