Nigerian women seize oil facilities

Toronto Star, Jul. 18, 2002

Nigerian women seize four more oil facilities 
Takeovers spread as villagers demand jobs, better communities 

By D'Arcy Doran, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

ESCRAVOS, Nigeria – Hundreds of unarmed women seized control of at least
four more ChevronTexaco facilities in the Niger Delta yesterday, even as the 
10-day occupation of an oil terminal by other village women ended.

The occupations were spurred at least in part by the crushing poverty in 
which villagers live amid the region's oil wealth. Nigeria is the world's 
sixth-largest exporter of oil.

The women involved in the latest takeovers, all members of the Ijaw tribe, 
were refusing to leave until they had met with senior company executives to 
press their demands for jobs and community improvements.

"We are going to sit here until Chevron sends its managing director to us, 
even if it takes two years," said Josephine Ogoba, a protest leader.

She said the women now controlled five facilities. ChevronTexaco's Nigeria 
subsidiary confirmed takeovers at four flow stations near the villages of 
Abiteye, Makaraba, Olero Creek and Otunana, but company officials had no 
information on a reported occupation at Opueketa.

The women's protests were a departure for Nigeria, where armed men 
frequently use kidnapping and sabotage to pressure oil multinationals into 
giving them jobs, protection money or compensation for alleged environmental 
damage. Hostages generally are released unharmed.

Ogoba said the women had not tampered with equipment at the facilities, but 
it was not clear whether they were still operating.

The latest actions mirrored a 10-day occupation of the multimillion-dollar 
Escravos terminal, some 80 kilometres to the west. But Ogoba said the 
protests were unrelated.

There was a buoyant mood yesterday afternoon at Escravos after ChevronTexaco 
executives and women's representatives signed a seven-page memorandum to end 
that siege.

The signing came two days after both sides reached a verbal agreement in 
which the company promised to provide jobs and amenities for nearby villagers.

ChevronTexaco even promised to throw a party tomorrow for the women, their 
families and neighbours to thank them for not damaging equipment at the 
facility, said Eghare Ojogor, chief of the nearby Ugborodo village.

"We are delighted that this crisis has been resolved peacefully through 
dialogue, even though the process has been very painstaking," Jay Pryor, 
chairman and managing director of Chevron Nigeria Ltd., said in a statement.

Only a few dozen of the initial 700 American, Canadian, British and Nigerian 
oil workers trapped inside the Escravos terminal remained yesterday.

About 200 workers were allowed to leave on Sunday, and hundreds more 
departed in a ferry Tuesday morning, protesters said.

Kingsley Kuku, spokesperson of the Ijaw Youth Council, said the latest 
takeovers were also aimed at gaining control of oil facilities in Ijaw 
territory that the tribe feared might be claimed by the newly victorious 
women at Escravos.

Although the Escravos protesters include women from several different ethnic 
groups, the core group is of the rival Itsekiri tribe.

"Our women are without fear. They are participating actively in our struggle 
and have embarked on this action without the use of arms, not even brooms," 
Kuku said.

He warned that Ijaw men would "burn down all Chevron oil facilities" if 
police or soldiers tried to forcibly remove the women or otherwise harm them.

Protesters at the Abiteye flow station, however, said they were only 
interested in jobs and amenities – not tribal disputes.

Ethnic divisions appeared to have emerged, however, among the several 
hundred protesters at Escravos.

Anino Olowu, one of their representatives, said squabbles between Itsekiris 
and other tribes needed to be resolved before the women vacated the plant.

The women sang and danced on the facility's docks Monday when they learned 
the company had offered to hire at least 25 villagers over five years.

The company said it was also willing to build schools, provide water, 
electricity, a community centre, and help the women establish poultry and 
fish farms to supply the terminal's cafeteria.

The struggle between international oil firms and local communities drew 
international attention in the mid-1990s, when violent protests by the Ogoni 
tribe forced Shell to abandon its wells on their land. The late dictator 
Gen. Sani Abacha responded in 1995 by hanging nine Ogoni leaders, including 
writer Ken Saro Wiwa.

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