LAGOS (WOMENSENEWS)– The blockade by women protesters of one of Nigeria’s largest oil terminals entered its third day Wednesday, according to a French news agency report.
The women who stormed an oil terminal run by U.S.-owned Chevron Nigeria Ltd. are vowing to continue blockading the plant until their terms–jobs for their children–are met.
As many as 150 women from the communities adjoining the tank farm, entered the Escravos oil terminal by storm on Monday and barricaded a storage depot, landing field and dockside.
“They are complaining that their children have not been given employment,” an engineer stuck in the plant, who asked not to be named, said in a press interview.
“They are not armed or violent. Most of them are women over 45 and there is no way we would lay a finger on them.”
The Escravos terminal is a major crude oil storage depot 300 kilometers east of Lagos. Production from Chevron’s fields to the west of the Niger Delta is stored there for export.
Chevron officials said the Nigerian security forces had been alerted but that the company was attempting to end the stand-off through negotiation with the protesters and community elders.
“The protesters, who have barricaded key installations in the tank farm, have disrupted very important operational facilities at the facility,” Chevron Nigeria’s public affairs manager Sola Omole said in a statement on Tuesday. “The management of Chevron Nigeria Ltd. has continued,” he added, “to appeal to the women to embrace peaceful dialogue in the resolution of their demands.”
–Lisa Vives, Global Information Network Ltd.
