We are not up to one percent of your staff base- Ijaw, Itsekiri, Ilaje tell Chevron

Graduates of Ijaw, Itsekiri and Ilaje ethnic Nationalities under the auspices of KOMBOT- Egbema and Gbaramatu Graduates Employment Front, National Association of Itsekiri Graduates, NAIG and National Association of Ilaje Graduates, NAIG have accused Oil and Gas Major, Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL of not employing “up to 1%” of its indigenes as direct staff despite hosting the company’s operations.

According to the three ethnic Nationalities’ graduates body, their people “are never employed nor given direct employment opportunity into the following departments; Human Resources, Finance, Procurement, Production, Marine and Legal,” insisting it “is a complete violation of the Local Content Act Section 28 subsection 3 which states that the project promoter shall ensure to maintain a reasonable amount of personnel from the area it has significant operation.”

In a statement issued in Warri, Delta State Monday November 14 during a Press Conference, graduate leaders of the three tribes alleged that for the past 20 years, Chevron has been adamant in absolving most of their graduates who “have been extremely successful” in the company’s recruitment process “based on flimsy excuses.”

The statement signed by President of National Association of Itsekiri Graduates, NAIG, Comrade Edema Collins Oritsetimeyin, President of Egbema and Gbaramatu Employment Front (KOMBOT) Yabrade Moses and President of National Association of Ilaje Graduates, NAIG, Ikuesan Ademola Kelly claimed that it took serious confrontation with Chevron in the past, including the shutting down of Abiteye Flow Station in 1998 before a few of their people were employed.

While accusing Chevron of not doing “much to alleviate the sufferings of our people,” despite the huge resources expended by the Company through its Global Memorandum of Understanding, GMoU Programme, the graduates outlined 11- point demand Chevron must address within the next 14 days with effect from Monday November 14 or face “series of massive protest in all Chevron Flow Stations and operations in our domain consistently till all our demands are met.”

Some of the demands include “immediate conversion of VTP5/OTP2 trainees, immediate conversion of VTP6/0TP3 trainees, intake of 2014 Ogere training awaiting batch, reinstatement of all indigenes sacked without due process (e.g Timmy Okrika, Prince Dateme and Godwin Omadoye) that has been absolved of all wrong doings by the National Assembly after investigation/inquiries in the presence of CNL,” provision of post-graduate scholarship for host communities, reservation of the position of Operations Manager for qualified people from the host communities as well as reviewing the undergraduate scholarship scheme from N75, 000 to N300, 000 per annum due to inflation.

×