By 
By Aniefon Dick
The people of Rumuekpe Community in Emouha Local Government Area of Rivers State are calling on the government to intervene in their plight.
Despite being host to four multinational oil companies, including Shell, Agip, Total, and Elf, the community remains severely neglected and impoverished.
In a heartfelt appeal during a media chat organised by the Social Action Development Integrated Centre, the community leaders, including Gaius Ajuru, a former councillor in Emouha LGA, expressed their frustration and desperation.
“We are helpless, and the government should help us. Successive governments have ignored our community, despite our contributions to the nation’s wealth.
“We have no basic amenities, no employment opportunities, and our environment is severely degraded,” he said.
The community is plagued by oil spill pollution, which has rendered their land infertile and their water sources contaminated.
The once-thriving agricultural community now struggles to survive, with many residents suffering from various health problems.
Chief Innocent Eroro lamented the community’s deplorable state. He said, “we are suffering despite having oil wells. Our land is no longer fertile, we have no hospitals, no light, no good roads, and no basic amenities.
“Shell has not done anything for us, and we are tired of being ignored.”
The community’s women are particularly affected, with many suffering from premature menopause, cancer, and other health issues due to the oil spill pollution.
Blessing Orijus, the Rumuekpe Women leader, pleaded for help, saying, “We have no hospital to cater to our health needs, especially for maternal and newborn care.
“We are forced to rely on local midwives, which often results in tragic consequences.”
The community’s struggles have been exacerbated by the oil companies’ lack of corporate social responsibility.
“We don’t even have a single hospital here, many of our pregnant women give births through local and traditional birth attendants. If there is any serious health crisis, by the time they get to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) considering the distance, the patient would have given up.
“We don’t have a good hospital let alone a maternity but we harbour 4 giant multinationals companies who have not done any project, even the government has not done one project in the community,” she said.
Despite their profits, the companies have failed to provide basic amenities or employment opportunities for the community.
Henry Eferebo, a representative from the Civil Society group, emphasised the need for government intervention. According to him, the government must step in and remove the incentives that encourage illegal oil refining.
Eferebo called for technologies to clean up the environment and provide alternative livelihoods for the community.
“Climate change is part of the issues we are canvassing around but majorly government should come in, step in and remove those things that could give incentives to the government, enablers that will make people go into kpofire.
“Imagine if they are technologies, digging one of those pits and a sumo that draws these things (crude oil) from the rope just like we do with water and a tank to keep discharging into tanks overtime you will remove a considerable amount of hydrocarbon that has been circulating around the soil and it will discourage the people from going into kpofire”; Eferebo suggested, he said.
Sharing a similar sentiment, Ajuru, who expressed concerns about Shell’s disinvestment plans, stated that the community was neither informed nor involved in the process.
“They have said that Shell is disinvesting, but who knows without the knowledge of the community? Their liabilities, whom are they leaving them for? We are not aware,” he said.
The people of Rumuekpe Community are calling on the government to take immediate action to address their plight.
They demand employment opportunities, basic amenities, and environmental remediation to restore their community to its former glory.
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