Residents allege persecution over pipeline contracts

From Ayodele Samuel, Lagos.

Residents of Uvwie community and its environs, in Okpe local government area of Delta state are said to be living in constant fear for their safety owing to alleged activities of some politicians within the community.

Uvwie community has been engrossed in crisis over its portion of the N2 billion Pipeline Surveillance Fund given to Delta state government by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which they claim was not well handled by some elders of the community.

Speaking in Lagos yesterday, a resident, who claimed to have fled the community for her safety, Mrs. Ese Egboto said some politicians who have been dropping the names of some officials of the state government have been terrorizing them.

Egboto stated that their ordeal might not be unconnected to queries raised by some prominent members of the community to some elders on how the Federal Government’s pipeline security project was carried out.

According to her, the mastermind of the agitation for ensuring probity on how the project was carried out, one Ogbe Onokpite, was killed some three years ago, leaving many of his comrades who had been agitating alongside with him to scamper to safety.

“Our lives are in danger; we have been marked down for elimination, we hardly sleep with our two eyes closed. Many of us, whose activities have been considered too inimical to what they are doing, are being killed and

those who are lucky have scampered to safety including my brother Ovie Akpotor”, she said.