Women from the Alesa community in Eleme Local Government Area on Monday staged a dramatic nude protest against the controversial agreement between Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and two Chinese firms for the rehabilitation and operation of the Port Harcourt Refining Company.
The protest, which entered its second week, saw elderly women and youths barricading the refinery gate while accusing the Federal Government and NNPCL of sidelining host communities in negotiations surrounding the refinery arrangement.
The latest demonstration followed an earlier blockade by youths from Alesa and Okrika, who demanded the reconstitution of the Joint Community Relations Committee and greater involvement in decisions concerning the refinery’s future.
Although the full details of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between NNPCL and the Chinese firms have not been made public, the agreement has continued to spark tension among host communities, who insist they deserve consultation, representation, and economic benefits from facilities located on their ancestral lands.
One of the protesters, Catherine Abbey-Wai, said the communities had sacrificed for decades without receiving meaningful benefits from refinery operations.
“The refinery is on our land. There is no more land left for us. We have been farming, but there is no place left to farm,” she said.
She also lamented rising unemployment and hardship in the area despite decades of oil and gas activities.
“We are not working; our children who are graduates are not working. The government wants to sell the refinery to China, but it’s ours, so we need to be involved,” she added.
Abbey-Wai stressed that women, youths, and traditional leaders within the host communities should have been consulted before any agreement was signed.
Another protest leader, Elizabeth Bouro, warned that the demonstrations would continue until the government addressed their demands.
“We’re supposed to benefit from this refinery, but we did not benefit from anything,” Bouro said.
“If they don’t answer us, we can stay here for more than one month. We’ll still stay here until the government answers us.”
The protest has renewed concerns over community relations surrounding the long-troubled refinery, which has remained largely non-functional for decades despite repeated rehabilitation efforts costing billions of dollars.
Under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Federal Government approved $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery, though critics maintain that little visible progress has been achieved.
