Angry Ijaw youths shut down Agip plant in Rivers

Angry youths on Wednesday shut down the OB-OB gas plant belonging to the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, in Omoku, the headquarters of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The angry youths said they decided to shut down the facility when NAOC refused to meet and interface with them on issues affecting them, including employment and the need to implement the content of an existing Memorandum of Understanding.

The youths, who chanted war songs while they formed a blockade around the main entrance to the facility, vowed that the gas plant would remain shut until NOAC began to do the right thing by listening to them.

Vice President of Omoku Youth Association, Mr. Emeka Ababiri, told Punch in a telephone interview that his members began to picket the point where the facility was located in Omoku at about 6am.

Ababiri explained that the youth association had written series of letters to the management of NAOC on the need to have a meeting, where they could discuss the way forward, adding that the oil company failed to honour any of the invitations.