PRESS RELEASE ETCHE PEOPLE TO PROTEST AGAINST EXCLUSION FROM THE DELEGATES LIST OF THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE. The mouthpiece pressure front of Etche ethnic nationality under the auspices of Etche People’s Liberation Congress (EPLC) has adopted a resolution to protest their exclusion from the proposed National Conference. It should be noted that Etche ethnic in scope, size and scale remains very strategic to economic stability and posterity of Nigeria considering its abundant natural resources deposit. Etche ethnic is home to serial and cyclic environmental degradation due to over 40 years of prolonged, protracted and uninterrupted oil and gas exploration and exploitation activities in the area, with visibly and invariably nothing to show for our oil bearing status in terms of infrastructural development, while we also contribute about 25% of the 700million cubic feet of natural gas consumed by the country on daily basis. The combined Etche and Omuma LGAs production capacity is about 150,000 barrels of Bonny light crude oil per day out of the cumulative national out-put of 2million barrels per day, yet other less productive and troublesome ethic groups were allotted slots to participate in the conference against the marginalized but peaceful and contributive Etche tribe in Niger Delta Region. Etche ethnic nationality is habouring just 29 political wards out of the total 16,400 wards in Nigeria, not minding our population of about one million people inhabiting several communities spread across Rivers, Abia and Imo states of the South South and South East zones, just two LGAs out of 774 LGAs, three State Constituencies, one Federal Constituency out of 360, and three First Class Traditional stools. Etche is host to SPDC, AGIP, SAIPEM, DEUTAG, TOTAL & NNPC facilities but regrettably, our oil producing communities cannot be accessed during rainy season, Etche is the food basket of the zone, and also the most peaceful oil producing ethnic group in African, yet no Etche son or daughter has ever been appointed to any Board, Parastatal or Agency of Federal Government since the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorate in 1914. Etche’s natural resources has been continually hunted, hounded, preyed and predated upon with no commensurate dividend in terms of infrastructural development and human resources enhancement, while its political feature is gripped by stark stasis and collective retrogression. Etche prosperity is laced with salutary ironies of convoluted ethnic discrimination and recrimination in terms of federal projects, and hideous manifestation of marginalization in terms of federal appointments. Etche people are treated and maltreated as aliens among the Nigeria 250 ethnic nationalities that may be why the surveillance contract of NNPC pipelines that transverse Etche land was contracted to outsiders. Let it be on record that the actual physical struggle in Niger Delta region actually started in 1981 in Odagwa community in Etche, which culminated to the Umuechem massacre of 1990, but Etche ethnic nationality is yet to benefit from the largess of Niger Delta struggle despite our oil and gas producing status. Therefore, it is on this premise that we have endorsed, resolved and unanimously adopted to PROTEST the exclusion of Etche ethnic nationality from the National Conference, because it has become compelling necessity and totally inevitable. Signed on behalf of EPLC: Com Japhet A.C Ogbueri, acai Com Gashon Bob Achor
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 13:03:30 +0000