In the wake of the boat mishap that claimed the life of one of their kinsmen, late Precious Imbibo, Koko-Ama Community has accused companies in the area of endangering their lives on their river with their boats and denying them employment opportunities.

Youth President of the Community, Godknows Imabibo told Kristina Reports on Sunday, January 21, 2024 in Koko-Ama Community that news of the incident of Saturday, January 20, 2024, came to them as a shock.

Lamenting the alleged recklessness of the chartered boats servicing the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), Imabibo complained that despite several complaints to the government, the reckless sailing pattern of the vessels plying the Amadi-Ama Creek has continued.

“We have complained this issue to the government, the way they are running the river. This is a creek not a river where you can open all your engine to run over and they are supposed to consider that there are communities that live along this Amadi-Ama Creek.”

He appealed to authorities to consider them as they ply their route, adding that fishing is their only means of livelihood in the area since there are no jobs.

“This is how we survive. Since NLNG, Berger and NDDC don’t want to employ us and we are the host community, they don’t want to employ us, we can’t wait for them. So, we have to sort ourselves and by going to the river, we are able to get our daily bread.”

“Especially, their gunboats, no matter how much you wave them, they will not stop. So, henceforth, they will use dead slow from their jetty down to Nestoil because there are fishermen in the river.”

Recall that Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara had promised to revamp the water transport system in the State with a view making traveling by sea safer and affordable for the people of the State.

He narrated that when information about the boat mishap came, residents of the community mobilized a search party to recover the body of their demised kinsman, saying that after they found his body, they took him to Integrated Supply Base (ISB) jetty of the NLNG before taking him back to the community for interment.

“When the message came, we went to Amadi-Ama to lay our complaint. This morning, we woke up to go and search for him, after we picked him up, we took his body to NLNG checking point and the jetty, after which we took him to Koko-Ama to be received by the people before laying him to rest.”

Kristina Reports was yet to get responses from the Federal and Rivers State Ministries of Transport, Julius Berger Nigeria Limited and the Niger Delta Development COmmission (NDDC) on the claims of Imabibo as at the time of this report.

On its part, the NLNG had told Kristina Reports through its General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, Andy Odeh that it works in concert with its host communities to determine, formulate and implement development programmes and projects that suit them, asserting that it was an ongoing corporate posture.