Apparently deeply worried by the state of things in home community, Oloma, a land blessed with abundant natural and other resources and yet so backward in terms of development indices, Iderima Dagogo Waribor, a Pastor serving God’s Word Power Ministry, Port Harcourt, and an elder in Oloma Community spoke with Kristina Reports team comprising Godswill Jumbo, Nengi Bluejack and Ann Hart at his home in Bonny on the teething issues affecting his community.

An accomplished Manager of men and resources, Elder Waribor’s career path inculpates the Federal Office of Statistics, now National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria Tobacco Company, later Rivers State Ministry of Finance, before he went on to establish Warialisco Nigeria Limited, a civil works and procurement company.

Aside informing that there is a change of guard with him voted as the new Chairman of Oloma Community sequel to a judgment of the Rivers State High Court obviating the past leadership, he gave some insights into the long excruciating journey of the community towards its Uhuru, urging his kinsmen and women to rally around the positive and progressive trajectory the community has now assumed. Enjoy the excerpts!.

Kristina Reports: Good morning, Sir, we are pleased to meet you, let’s know you, Sir…

Elder Iderima Dagogo Waribor: My name is Elder Pastor Iderima Dagogo Waribor, a native of Oloma Community in Bonny.

You said you are a pastor; pastor of which church, Sir?

Pastor of God’s Word Power Ministry…

Is it based in Bonny or Port Harcourt?

It’s based in Port Harcourt.  

So, you are an elder in Oloma Community…

Yes.

We have heard any rumours of issues about the leadership of the community and some involving Shell, that you even whent to court. What actually happened?

We whent to court because of disorderliness, disagreements and quarrels. Oloma actually is an oil producing community, there are gas wells, oil wells, flow stations within our environment and, as a result of these, Shell relates with us and from there problem arose due to greed and selfishness and mismanagement of those things by the people appointed by the community. So, that led to the court case because they couldn’t contain it again. They couldn’t manage it again and that led to court action. The elders decided to go to court because the people would no longer obey them. The people that were sent to Shell became something else; they no longer obey the community so we had to go to court. I wasn’t an elder then; they (elders) whent to court, and they took about seven long years in the court from 1995 to 2011 when the matter was disposed of by the court and judgment was given. That was how we whent through this thing.  

Talking about the judgment, what did the court decide on the matter?

Yea, the court decided to remove the persons, though one of them is late now; they removed them and also relieved them of their responsibility of representing the community and Shell. But they refused…

They refused to comply with the order of the court? 

They refused to comply with the order of the court, for 11 good years. The next thing they did was that they removed the venue of discussion, of meetings with SPDC that used to be done in the village town square from that time after the judgment. They (community) no longer see them, they (Shell) no longer come to the community. They took it away. They now do that discussion somewhere else. We used to interact with Shell whenever they have business. They come in and interact with them and that’s how they cut us off, we didn’t see them again.

But did the community draw the attention of the management of Shell to this anomaly?

Of course, the case was actually against Shell and the delegates of the community and the judgment was given that Shell should no longer relate with this people; that is what the judgment says, don’t use them again, but they refused.

In the light of this what did the community do?

We tried everything possible to settle the matter peacefully but it was to no avail and for these eleven long years. Finally, the community decided that it was enough. So, the next thing now was that we tried to alert everyone everywhere; wrote letters attaching the judgment to various areas and also send to the Amanyanabo-in-Council. We sent to Commissioner of Police, and we also sent to Bonny Local Government Council. we went to gather the community, sounded the drum and they gathered, we went out and the judgment was read by myself to them. Of course, this thing has been hidden and not many people knew about it, only a few of us knew about it and continued to pamper it till now. We have been to court, what else do we do? So, we took that discussion that we will change the leadership of the community; and that was what we did.

So, has that change happened now?

That change happened in the month of June this year. Nevertheless, a few of them ganged up and went and inaugurated the youth council in the same contempt. They have been in this contempt for years since 2011 and in the same contempt they went and gathered the youth and inaugurated a youth body for the community. They are not known to law, by the judgment of a competent court of law it was ordered that they should go away. They went to inaugurate a youth body and now they are planning that they want create more elders.  

But what if doing this is an outcome of maybe they went to appeal the judgment? Are you aware of anything like that?

Nothing like that, of course, SPDC paid the fine, they paid the fine. They couldn’t have paid the fine if they were going for appeal. So, they did not wait for appeal, they paid the fine.

Who are the new leaders of the community that emerged in June like you said?

There are a number of us, but I happened to be approved by a number of the elders that came together to say enough is enough. They accepted me as the Chairman of the community.

Now, these elders that saw through the process of you emerging as the Chairman, are they all elders of Oloma Community? And did the process meet with the requirement of the Community for such to happen?

Of course, you know we have constitution, although, it is not written; the constitution is unwritten. We know this is how to go about it, and that is what we did in the town square.  

So, between June and now this is October, has anybody objected to this new development?

The objection is only the constitution of the youth body, that is act of rejection.  

What if the youth were coerced to do that? Was it the youths who came together to elect a leadership for themselves or some elders got them to that?

Some elders, illegal or ignoble elders, although, they were not removed by court as their names were not on the list. But according to the judgment all that are working with the person, the former representative of the community to SPDC, have been relieved of any such responsibilities to act on behalf of the community. When the former Chairman of the Community died and most of the elders also died because they were very aged men, he (the representative) constituted himself and number of people of his interest as elders in disobedience of the court order.

When we look at Bonny customs and tradition, the traditional leadership system in Bonny, the youths are supposed to come together by themselves and elect or appoint a leader for themselves and present such to the elders of the house or community, and not to be made by any other party. Was that the situation?

Not at all, this time, they were put together and they were even among them…some of the elders were caught on camera being involved in the process.

If you were to talk to Oloma Community now, the people, the elders, the women, the youths, what advice will you want to give them, while all of this is happening?

Well, I will give them the advice that, giving themselves to the leadership that the court has removed is contempt of court. So, they should desist from ganging up and organizing themselves to constitute problem in the community. That’s what I will tell them. At least, it is not good. I’ve spoken with them and advised them and they all agreed that, in fact, what the people are doing are not good.