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By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
The paramount ruler of Ikodi community in Ahoada West local government area of Rivers State, HRH Jonathan Ayonoadu, has criticised oil companies operating in the Niger Delta for not doing enough to bear on the development of the region.
Ayonoadu handed down the criticism Tuesday during a meeting of stakeholders from over six oil producing Niger Delta states organized by the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State for community members of its cluster boards across the Niger Delta.
He said that the development in Abuja and elsewhere in Nigeria was made possible by the discovery and utilization of oil revenues from the Niger Delta for the provision of infrastructure in other climes.
Port Harcourt Mundial reports that the event attracted the presence of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta (Operation Delta Safe) and other dignitaries from within and outside the Niger Delta.
HRH Ayonoadu said the vault of wealth from oil sales by Nigeria and the oil companies alone is enough to put the country in the comity of developed states, adding that no hungry citizen would be able to protect the facilities of these multinationals if the people of the region are continually neglected.
The royal father urged Shell and other oil exploration and exploitation firms in the Niger Delta to evolve policies and deliberate alternatives for sustainable development of their host communities and other areas.
“For my community, Ikodi, we don’t have anything from these oil companies. We don’t have electricity, no roads, no health centres, etc.
“Shell and other oil companies should not think that the starved people of their host communities or the Niger Delta would protect their facilities from vandalism.
“No hungry man can work. You need strength to be able to do surveillance on their equipments. These oil companies should come and replicate the development in Abuja in the Niger Delta region,” he said.
In another development, the paramount ruler has commended the Rivers State governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, for his developmental projects across state.
He also lauded the governor for upgrading the stool of the overall monarch of the Engenni kingdom to first class, saying the upgrade has endeared the governor to the Engenni ethnic group.
