Marginalization of Host Community: Protester’s shutdown Seplat flow stations in Delta

…Seplat Energy is Committed to best practices in the management of contractor personnel

 

By Akpos Oghenetega,

Protesting women and men over number over one hundred over the weekend stormed Seplat Energy flow stations across Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State shutting them down and demanding better working conditions.

They also demanded that the company should treat them as equals like their counterpart in other places of operations, noting that their peaceful disposition is now been taken for granted by the management of the indigenous oil firm.

Carrying placards with the words “Treat us well in our land’ ‘we are not slaves” “We are suffering in our land inspite the blessings” “We are tired of being treated badly,” and so on, the women danced round with some of them holding palm fronds at the Oton and Amukpe flow station.

Speaking at the gate of the company, Comrade Eloho Ogodo, the financial secretary of the Sapele-Okpe Community and a member of the body said they were tired of being slaves in their land, adding that the Okpes are peaceful people “We are working like elephants and taking home Peanuts, we are not here on our own, we are under the instruction of the President of the forum, Chief Dickson Omoraka, our people are being employed in low positions like messenger, cleaner, security men and so on and paid very poorly that is why we said we are fed up, not until they listen to us we are not leaving here today,” he said.

The vice chairman of the Sapele Okpe Community, another member of the Okpe Oil & Gas Forum, Mr Freeborn Ogodo said it was disheartening to be treated like a slave in his own land, insisting that the Okpes has been too quiet for a long time “imagine our brothers have been poorly paid compare to the others, they say we are only fit for low jobs and we are paid forty thousand naira, to fifty thousand naira why the same people in other places are paid hugely” adding that they are fed up of the continuous maltreatment from Seplat Energy.

Also speaking on behalf of the mothers in the community, Mrs Victoria Kekeke, expressed the pain of seeing their children unemployed or employed in low-paying positions. She highlighted the struggles of impoverished widows and stressed the importance of Seplat considering the qualifications of the Okpe workers and providing them with fair opportunities and wages.

Mrs Rebecca Atori, a member of the Egweya group of the Sapele-Okpe Community, condemned the practice of paying Okpe workers meagre salaries while others in the same positions earn significantly more. She emphasized the cruelty of such treatment and called for an end to this disparity.

All efforts to get the company to react to the development were met with a blank wall, why the base managers could not be reached, a male worker who walked out from the yard refused to utter a word “Please I am not authorized to say anything” he said before driving away

However, the community protesters have vowed not to leave until the company listen and acts on their demand.

Meanwhile, the Management of Seplat Energy in a press statement said that the oil firm is committed to best practices in the management of contractor personnel, noting the recent revolt leading to the shutdown of Amukpe and Sapele facilities by contractor personnel has been resolved.

According to the statement; “on Friday, 19 May 2023 at 0600 hours, some community indigenes working as contractors’ personnel invaded Seplat facilities at Amukpe and Sapele West locations, disrupting production activities and subsequently forcing a brief halt to business activities, including a declaration of force majeure to affected customers. Through stakeholder engagements and collaboration with the Government, the disruption has been resolved and normal operations have resumed.

“At Seplat Energy, our contractor personnel are encouraged to make their grievances known (if any) through their managing contractors or designated Seplat officials, or otherwise leverage established third-party mediation channels. We are actively looking into why these individuals opted for a disruptive action without recourse to established procedures and with no concern or regard for public safety and national interest (our Seplat West facilities supply about 37 percent of the gas used for power generation in the country).

“Our stakeholder engagements continue. We have established through a meeting with the contractors’ personnel, security agencies and Okpe Host Communities Forum leaders, that the disruption was due to the individuals’ demands for salary increments and automatic conversion to regular staff. The contractors managing these individuals have been notified of their actions, and we understand that plans were underway to implement a salary increment for their personnel before the incident occurred.

“We must emphasize that during the invasion of our facilities, we ensured the safety and security of our staff which is always our primary priority. All of our production staff are safe, and no injury or harm was recorded.

“Seplat Energy continuously strives to ensure best practices in the management of personnel provided to us by third-party service providers, including regular engagements on their grievances. These service providers will continue to engage their personnel and amicably address the concerns raised by them.

“We would like to appreciate the support from our community leaders and the government security agencies in working together with Seplat Energy to efficiently manage the situation, prevent any HSE incident and promptly restore normal operations. As part of our continuous improvement initiatives, we are maintaining an open line of communication with all concerned parties and in the coming weeks, we will complete a post-mortem and extract critical lessons learned to strengthen our operations and prevent any recurrence.”