Soldiers attached to the Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe (OPDS) have arrested Mr. Chikeobi Alali, a Niger Delta community leader in Ogba-Ndoni-Egbema Local Government Area of Rivers State over alleged shutting down of 11 oil wells.
Alali, along with his lieutenants at the Local Government Oil and Gas Landlords Association in the council, were said to have disrupted production at the oilfield over unresolved issues with Agip, operators of the oil field.
The security operatives were said to have taken him from his base in Rivers to their headquarters in Igbogene, outskirts of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State where he is currently being held.
The spokesman of joint military force deployed in the Niger Delta region, Major Abdulahi Abubakar, who confirmed the arrest, explained that several oil wells belonging to Agip were shut down by the host community.
Abubakar noted that it was wrong for the community to take laws into their hands, adding that efforts were underway to resolve the crisis as officials of the oil firm had visited the suspect.
He said troops deployed in the area had reinforced security around the oil field and reopened the facilities for operations, adding that the military will not tolerate interference with oil facilities.
But wife of the suspect, Mrs. Ngozi Alali, disclosed yesterday that her husband was arrested by the JTF and had been held incommunicado since last Saturday.
The distressed woman said after several visits, the soldiers eventually admitted picking up her husband, insisting that the JTF has denied the family and lawyers access to Alali.
“My husband was arrested by soldiers and taken away and when we traced him to the headquarters in Yenagoa, the soldiers feigned ignorance of his arrest.
“We kept pestering them until they admitted that he was in their custody but they denied me access to him.
“Efforts by his family and lawyer to secure his bail have been fruitless; we were told on Monday to write a letter to the Commander of JTF to allow us to see him; we wrote the letter and we were told that the commander was not around,” she said.
She added that her husband, the Chairman of the local government oil and gas landlords association, was arrested with the secretary of the group along with one other person.
While disclosing that the two others arrested along with him had since been released, the suspect’s wife said the problem they have had with the oil company bordered on failure to review an expired agreement.
According to her, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) review had dragged on for a long time before the alleged incident.
“And the last meeting they held last year, they gave a deadline of November 2016 and all the parties agreed that if after November 2016, the agreement is not reviewed, the community would shut down the oil wells, that was why they arrested him,” she said.
Also, Mr. Pat Obiene, a Social Activist in a reaction called for the immediate release of the community leader as his detention had led to a protest at Agip’s office in Port Harcourt on Monday.
“From available records, Agip reneged on an arrangement to close out the MoU in November 2016 and we are already in March 2017 and the only reasonable thing to do is to detain the community leader?
“This is counter-productive and not in line with the peace initiative of the federal government. The military should change their attitude and promote dialogue and consensus which the Vice President preached during his recent tour to the region,” Obiene noted.
