Women in Okpokrika-Ogbesu Community in Ndokwa East Local Government have cried out to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to give them a sense of belonging by directing development projects to their community.
The women, who lamented the absence of facilities to make life livable in the community, said, though they are an oil rich community, there is no power supply, no water despite a heavy contamination of their water sources; no road, no jetty. Even as the state is a top rate education state, the 4,000 population there has no access to a secondary or vocational school to prepare children for improved future living.
“We have nothing here. As you can see, there is no road to this community. Access is by water or a distant ride through the bush by motorbike and that means spending much money. Travelling from here to Aboh, the local government headquarters and main coastal town here is N4,000-N5,000 by boat going and another N4000-N5000 coming back. Then you pay perhaps another N3000 to Ashaka the next big town. You must have at least N15,000 for transport before you set out of this community.\
“We feel like we are not part of the state. We are suffering too much. Who has that kind of money now as our land which was once rich is no longer doing well because of pollution from oil. Worse thing is that we cannot even get clean water to drink or cook. We are forced to use the polluted water which we try to filter with alum. That has caused many health problems yet we have no health facility.
“In addition, there is no light in this community. We struggle with darkness using lantern and there is no secondary school for our children to attend. We are forced to bend over to send them to school in either Ashaka or Ndoni; Ndoni is on the other side of the river in Rivers State. There is nothing to give joy to the young or encourage them to stay. Okpokrika people just want to feel that they are part of Delta State. The governor should come to our aid and fast,” one of the women, Mrs Onwunaro lamented.
The women who are mainly farmers and fisher folks, listed such social amenities as water, power supply, road to improve access to their agricultural produce, a good health center, a secondary school for their children and empowerment in the form of grants, provision of farming implements including improved cassava stems, plantain suckers, pepper and other seedlings as paramount needs.
They lamented that rarely are they visited by any government official or agency having no real road link with neighbouring communities. By sea, the community is a 45 minute ride from Aboh.
Okpokrika Community is a community situated along the River Niger in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State. It is an agrarian community, the occupation of the fisher folks having been greatly reduced as a result of the negative impact of oil exploration, especially, water pollution due to oil spillages over time. Marine lives have been badly affected by these environmentally unfriendly explorations and these have thrown many fishermen out of the livelihood trade they inherited from their fore fathers. Consequently, many of these people were forced to turn to full time farming to escape from poverty but, the recent yearly devastating flood thanks to the impact of climate change, has also made farming difficult thereby plunging them into untold hardship.
A visit to Okpokrika Community truly revealed a poverty ravaged community with no single amenity to show the presence of government. In the course of interaction with the women in the community, some of the women expressed their frustrating experiences which included failure of successive governments, both at the state and local government levels, to show any form of concern to their plights. Not even when the community was sacked by flood did the government show any compassion for this people, no matter how little.
Onyemechi Joy: The suffering in our community is unbearable. We lack everything and our farming efforts are destroyed by yearly flood. What we need in this community include road, water and light. If we can get a generator that can serve us, the better, because we can’t even talk of linking us up with the national grid now because of the huge financial implications.
Transportation is very difficult because of lack of road. I came from Aboh this morning and I spent over N6,000 on motorcycle ride. That is the more reason we need good road. We also need schools and hospital. Sometimes in cases of emergency, before transporting patients from here to Aboh, lives are lost.
Mrs Alice Ogbomeh (Farmer)
We have suffered so much from flood because it is now yearly that flood ravages our farms. Our farms are not yielding well again due to oil exploration. We don’t have market where we can sell our goods. If there is market, people would come here to buy our products and that would fetch us money.
We also need good drinking water because our water here is not good at all. It is even manageable now but when the rain and flood come it becomes very bad. The water becomes polluted with oil which makes it undrinkable.
We also need hospital in this community where our pregnant women can deliver their babies to reduce cases of children’s death at birth. Also in cases of emergency, Aboh is too far to get required urgent treatment. No light, no school for our children. These are the things that made us to gather here in order to express our pains. Madam Carol Onyemike
My child goes to school at Ashaka (a semi-urban community far away) because we don’t have school here. So every child leaves this community to Ashaka, Aboh or other distant communities. Transport fare from here to Ashaka is N15,000. Because of this, we make our children to live in those communities where they school and only come home during the holiday. This is the problem every home is facing in this community because of lack of schools.
As farmers, we are suffering a great deal because of flood. Every year, before our crops attain maturity, flood comes in and destroys our farms. This has impoverished us a lot. We did not even get any form of help or assistance from the government. We have been abandoned to our fate. I’m appealing to the government and relevant authorities to help us with schools and water.
This River Niger water is not good for drinking as it is often mixed with oil. The suffering is much. No help from anywhere. The government doesn’t care about our wellbeing. We don’t even have where to sell our food crops. We sometimes go to Ndoni (a not too far away Rivers State border community) and other communities to sell our farm produce and transportation takes our profits. Sometimes security men on the river extort money from us as well. It is a terrible situation. We need a market in this community.
Madam Regina Edenmaya John
There are so many things we lack in this community that are making life unbearable. We seriously lack good water in this community. The River water is highly polluted and it is not hygienic for human consumption. We don’t have hospital and school. We have to send our children out to school in other communities.
Our pregnant women in labour are taken to hospital in Kwale to deliver. We don’t have road and there is no light; no market and nothing to show government’s presence in our lives. Our farms are not yielding properly because of yearly flood and our lives are miserable. Government should please come to our aid and provide us with basic amenities to make our lives meaningful. We are not asking for too much.
Okpokrika Men Speak On Their Plight
Interestingly, while the women are very concerned about lack of water, schools, hospital, road and market in the community, the men feel that provision of roads, water and light can comfortably change Okpokrika story.
Youth
This community is a peaceful community only that we lack many things especially, roads. That is our major problem-road, water and light, are the major basic facilities that we lack.
The women added secondary school?
The most important ones; at least government can’t do everything at once. The most important ones-road, water and health center – those are the most important ones. We are suffering too much to access those- like water, we can’t get clean water, only that as most of us are born here, we are used to that dirty river water. We use the river water without putting anything; that is why we still survive.
What do you do?
Am from Lagos.
You are on vacation?
Yes.
How does this state of lack of amenities affect them?
It affects them especially those of us coming from outside as travelers. You may enter motor from Lagos to Aboh with N10,000 but when you reach here, you will sweat. You may wait from morning till night or at least five hours for a means to come here. So, it is too horrible.
So what do you want from government?
If they can give us road, clean water and light.
Do you have any facilities here by Agip?
We have pipelines but they haven’t started working on it.
Is there anything that government or the oil companies have done in your community?
Nothing, Nothing really, nothing.
Do you have an idea of how many people you have in your community?
Hmnn, both here and abroad we are more than 4000 but due to no road, people find it very difficult to enter the community; that’s why we are like this. Even to build a house here, you have to spend times three of what others spend. We have a really big problem. Government does not recognize us.
Maybe because you have not made enough noise?
Ee eh? Make noise? Noise doesn’t bring anything in this country. They will molest you, even jail you self with your noise. That is why everybody is afraid.
So you are telling government to remember Okpokrika, and Okpokrika is an oil community?
Yes.
National Point also spoke with the community chairman who decried the absence of the basic amenities that make life comfortable.
Community Chairman, Mr Okwudili Owah
How do you see your community?
My community is very nice but what we are lacking is that amenities are not here. As you can see, there is no good water, even no road, no electricity-all those things that make life enjoyable are not here.
Those are what we are asking government to provide for us.
You are an oil community?
Yes we are an oil community
Have you made attempts to draw government attention to your needs?
Sometimes. We have called them some times, that this is what we are looking for. We have called them that oil has developed, they haven’t come. At least, if they drill the oil, there will be changes. That is why we are calling them to get what we need, all those things that will make life enjoyable or comfortable.
Backing the women’s demand, the Okpokrika Ogbesu Community leaders have written to the commissioner for Oil and Gas and the Water Resources Development Commission requesting inclusion in development plans.
Part of the letter to the commissioner signed by the community chairman, Mr Okwudili Owah, the general-secretary and the Okara Ukwu, read:
“We the above mentioned community wish to use this opportunity to request for some basic facilities in our community such as:
1. Good drinking water as we have to trek about four kilometers to get drinking water.
2. We have no road linking us to the next community.
3. We have no clinic or any medical facility.
4. Please sir, we wish you to look into our case”
They appealed to their representative in the Senate, Senator Ned Nwoko to help facilitate the provision of three key social amenities-water, road and health facilities in the community by the Delta State government, while thanking him for listing among communities to benefit from being linked to the National Grid supplying power to the country.
Executive Director of CRIDEV, Lilian Nwokobia who has been building the capacity of women in Okpokrika community to demand inclusion from the Delta State government, informed National Point that after several advocacy visits to the Delta State Budget and Planning office, the community’s name has finally been woven into the 2025 budget. What remains to see is if the government will deliver the promised good to at least give the people a feeling of belonging.
Their state and National Assembly representatives and the Aboh Local Government leadership who have all been approached on behalf of the burden on the community that they only visit during electioneering, are yet to make any response.
