A traditional ruler in Abia, Eze Samuel Agu, has called on the State Government to attract more oil companies to engender rapid development.<\/p>\n
Agu, who is the monarch of Ndidi-Oza Community in Ukwa West Local Government Area of the state, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia.<\/p>\n
He said that having more oil companies operating in the state would attract more development to the state.<\/p>\n
He said there were \u201ccapped wells\u201d in the state but regretted that it was tapped through horizontal drilling, leaving the communities unduly exploited and denied of the benefits accruable to them.<\/p>\n
The monarch appealed to the State Government to invite more oil companies to the state in order to eliminate the monopoly currently enjoyed by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).<\/p>\n
According to him, such monopoly is neither in the interest of the state nor the host communities.<\/p>\n
Agu told NAN that there was oil deposit in other parts of the state waiting to be exploited and decried the “divide-and-rule\u2019\u2019 tactic introduced by SPDC in its dealings with the host communities.<\/p>\n
“There are more than seven oil companies in Rivers, so the Abia Government should bring in more companies because the more oil we produce here, the more money for the state,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
On state of roads in the area, he said that Oza communities had been cut off from other parts of the state due to the deplorable state of the roads.<\/p>\n
“Our major problem now in Oza is road and our people are currently gripped with fear that if nothing is done about it with the gradual return of the rain, it will be terrible for us.<\/p>\n
“For the two times it has rained this year, the whole place was flooded, making human and vehicular movement difficult.\u2019\u2019(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A traditional ruler in Abia, Eze Samuel Agu, has called on the State Government to attract more oil companies to engender rapid development. Agu, who is the monarch of Ndidi-Oza…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n