The Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) with a charge to reverse its recent unethical decisions against employees of Niger Delta origin or face closure of its operations in the region.
IYC said for sometime now, the company had embarked on a premeditated and well-coordinated denial of Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states indigenes from holding top positions in the company.
In a statement issued by its National President, Peter Igbifa, the group said the situation worsened since the appointment of the new Deputy Managing Director (DMD) and General Manager, Human Resources and Organisations (GMH).
It alleged that the GMH had teamed up with other top management staff of NAOC from her ethnic nationality and other major tribes in the country to undermine indigenes of core Niger Delta states in top management positions in the company.
“We raised the alarm, when we first got information of the development, but Nigerian authorities managing the oil and gas sector never paid attention to it.
“Today, Nigerians and indigenes of oil and gas producing states, who have worked diligently and have risen to the peak of their careers, with unblemished and untainted records in NAOC, are unceremoniously disengaged, while others are stifled and demoted,” the statement reads.
Igbifa lamented that indigenes of oil and gas producing states working in NAOC and in their area of operations are now facing ethnic profiling and extermination.
“Local and indigenous contractors are discriminated against in flagrant violation of the Nigerian Content Act and a culture of hate, tribal dominance and enthronement of ethnic supremacy by the DMD and her cohorts has assumed a dangerous dimension in NAOC,” he said.
IYC lamented that Niger Delta people have become endangered species in NAOC, adding that the DMD and her co-travellers have succeeded in obfuscating Niger Delta indigenes in the management cadre and top hierarchy of NAOC.
Igbifa also pointed that there were over 20 Divisional General Managers (DGMs) in the company, of which only two are Niger Delta persons with less significant and obscure positions.
“The council views the actions of NAOC lately, as anti-people and an affront on the collective interests of the Niger Delta people.
“Henceforth, we will engage NAOC with all the legitimate means at our disposal and to start with, if the company fails to address the issues raised with the required urgency, we will cripple their operations in the region,” the statement added.
