The Crude Oil Terminal of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Bonny Island, Rivers State was shut down this morning by officials of the Bonny Local Government Council who are accusing the multinational of failing to employ indigenes of the area.

The Bonny LGA Employment Monitoring Committee said it shut down the facility due to SPDC’s recalcitrance on employment issues affecting the community. The Chairman, Ibifuro Longjohn, and members of his committee were seen talking with some security operatives and some officials of SPDC.

Staff of the company and those of her contractors were seen hanging around the entrance of the terminal with heavily armed security personnel stationed at strategic positions to secure the facility.

Security operatives from the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Nigeria Police, and some senior officials of SPDC were seen making frantic phone calls ostensibly to diffuse the tension already gathering momentum in the area.

In a chat with Kristina Reports, Chairman of the Bonny LGA Employment Monitoring Committee, Ibifuro Longjohn accused SPDC and her contractors of refusing to employ indigenes of the area.

“We have been mandated by the Local Government Chairman to monitor employment issues in the community and we have gotten several reports that Shell has refused to employ our people. These unemployed people have been disturbing the Chairman for jobs and these opportunities are being denied them.”

He warned that the picketing of the facility would continue until Shell and her contractors accede to their requests.

“If they do not come to talk to us this shut down will continue. They have to come and discuss with us on how to employ our people. We cannot allow this to continue to happen. Our people are suffering and yet employment is going on here.” 

But in a swift reaction, an official of SPDC, who prefers anonymity as he was not authorized to speak for the company, denied the allegations. He accused some close aides of the Bonny LGA Chairman of being behind the incident.

“It is not true. I am telling you that it is not true. The employment followed due process and 100 per cent of the people employed were thoroughly screened by us and they are Bonny indigenes.”

“It is somebody close to the Chairman that is causing this problem. He vowed that all the employments must go through him else there would not be any employment. He is the one behind all these.”

Efforts to reach the Bonny LGA Chairman, David Irimagha, to get his reaction were abortive as calls to his mobile line were not answered as at the time of this report.