THEOPHILUS ONOJEGHEN, one of the journalists who cheated death during the ill-fated Dodo River trip where five Dutch nationals were kidnapped by the Niger Delta militants in Bayelsa State recently narrates his ordeal saying it was like walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
The journey
May 4, 2014 had dawned like every other day. I had my prayers and quiet time in the morning telling God to protect and deliver me from the snare of the fowlers, the wicked ones. I said a loud Amen and set out for the day’s work since I would not go to the church because of a scheduled trip to the Dodo River. Never did I have the inkling about what fate hid in the womb of time for me that fateful Sunday. Not even the least premonition. I was quite enthusiastic about the trip especially in the company of the five Dutch nationals who are visiting Nigeria for the first time.
The visitors’ mission in the creek is to do a documentary on the plight of the hapless people in the Dodo River communities whose land, lives and future have been ravaged by the effect of oil exploration in the Niger Delta. They wanted to inspect the Chevron Nigeria Limited’s Global Memorandum of Understanding, GMoU facilities and how these have affected the lives of people living in the five communities.
The visitors were in Nigeria under the aegis of Hope for Niger Delta Campaign, HNDC, on a fact finding mission and exploit the possibility of working out a partnership with the communities. Leader of the group, Berry Negerese had presented a paper at the Dutch Parliament highlighting the menace in the Ijaw communities in the riverine area of the Niger Delta vis-à-vis oil exploration by the multinational companies. Comrade Sunny Ofehe, a revered international environmental and Human Rights activist was also on the trip to, where I can conveniently call the valley of death. Others on the entourage included Erhard Leffers, Mrs Marianne Hendricks-Vos, Yandries Groenenedijk, Femi Soewu and myself.
We set out on the trip from Warri in Delta State, in two 250AD speed boats and had a roller coaster, hitch-free journey to the creek as the boats pierced through the water waves like the arrows. The journey took less than three hours and behold, we were heralded into the communities like kings. I am not too sure if the earliest missionaries had a better treatment than we had. It was a red carpet reception in all the five communities.
Before the trip, the visitors had been briefed on the plight of their hosts who had never seen electricity light in their lives, a people who live in hamlets made of raffia palms, a people who had never seen a house made of bricks. In fact, these are people who are very far away from civilization. The gloomy picture of the abject poverty of these people who swim in gold called oil filled the minds of the white men and woman.
They couldn’t juxtapose the chilling irony of a people who lay the golden eggs and yet had poverty as their middle name. The visitors were apprehensive about the story of a people who live near or on water yet have not even a drop of clean water to drink, making it a sparkling case of water, water everywhere yet with none to drink.
Leffers and Ms Hendricks-Vos were inquisitive to know more about these people while we navigated the rivers. I told them about the high level of degradation in the environment and lack of development from both the multinationals and government. I told them all they wanted to hear in those three hours until we arrived at Iduwini Kingdom in Ekeremor LGA of Bayelsa. From their mien, it was apparent that they had drawn so much pity, anger and concern for the people of the region. This is the Act 1, Scene 1 of our journey to the jaws of death as we arrived at Amatu Community where the indigenes hosted us lavishly with traditional dances as the women twisted their waists freely and to the astonishment of the Dutch.
Reasons for the trip
Berry Negerese while answering questions from journalists before the trip, stressed that the Netherlands team would produce a documentary on the 45-beds community hospital to attract the attention of international donors to come to the aid of the people through partnership for a better health delivery.
He said: “When we decided to look for donor agencies, because we know that there are agencies abroad that would be interested in such community facility like ours, we discussed with Comrade Sunny Ofehe and he was able to connect the Dutch team from Web TV, a Holland based television station to come and produce a documentary of our community hospital. We wanted the documentary so we can show it to a foreign audience. It was to prove that our community is safe that we invited them to come over to see things for themselves.”
He also complained that despite Dodo River Communities huge contribution to the country resources, the people have nothing to show for it. He added that 13 communities which made up the area share one school, no water, no job for youths and no light. According to him, they are deprived of all the basic amenities of life even with the presence of oil companies in their land.
Pains of Dodo River People
At the palace of His Royal Majesty, King Joel Ibane (Ogiobo IX), the grand Pere of Iduwini Kingdom while expressing joy over the visit, told the team that the only thing they can show for the mass resources the kingdom has been contributing to Nigeria is the hospital. King Ibane recounted that before the hospital was built for the people of the area, when a community member was sick the nearby place to go for medical attention is Central Hospital Warri which is three hours away from the locality. And the cost of seeking treatment was high as one need to hire speed boat to and from, a situation that left many dead in the riverine area.
According to him, a good number of his subjects have died while being boarded to Warri for treatment. He said the reason why they chose to go Delta State was because of its closeness as they share boundary. Yenagoa, Bayelsa State Capital is 7hours away from Dodo River.
“This hospital in our community was built by Chevron GMoU. The hospital lacks manpower to work there. We have only one doctor in this entire hospital and he stays two weeks in and two weeks off because of the terrain. We don’t have nurses and other health workers. We want our community hospital to be like the ones you have over there in Holland.
The effect of the gas flaring is affecting my people. A young man of 30 years is looking like a 50 years old. We need help please,” Ogiobo 1X narrated. He lamented that despite being host to Chevron and Shell their people are denied job placement by the oil companies as the only job his subjects are considered for is pipeline surveillance supervision even when the kingdom has produced graduates who can work in any field.
The monarch specifically lambasted Shell for neglecting the area and not honouring agreement with communities. He pointed out that his subjects are dying of hunger and poverty because of the activities of oil multinationals.
Pere of Iduwini blamed representatives of oil companies operating in the region for being economical with the truth about the development of the region, saying that the representatives brainwash their bosses with half truth and wrong information of what is obtainable in the region.
“Representatives of these oil companies are fraudulent and do not tell their bosses the truth. Must we become militants before we get something from Shell? In the area of contract, their staffs divert contracts meant for our people to themselves. They are not doing anything for our people. Our people are deprived of every little job meant for them.
“The Bonga Oil spill has destroyed our communities and the river from which we feed. Our communities are yet to be cleaned by Shell. Their representatives in Nigerian are doing nothing. They misinform the headquarters in Holland. The Eiye Field is another problem to us. They can’t force our youths again to take up arms, we are for peace and they too should be peaceful to us”, the monarch said.
The monarch later conducted us round the community where it was discovered that the only point of a drinkable water in the community was little stream behind an abandon federal government water scheme. The water was brown in colour with toads all over. To show the reality of their plight, the traditional ruler fetched the water and drank. Other villagers took after him.
We then visited the hospital and discovered that there was no trace of human beings in the beautiful edifice except for the National Youth Corps members residing in the staff quarters who conducted us round the hospital facilities. Although, the hospital can boast of some facilities like beds, furnished staff quarters and a generating plant which it was learnt cost over 200 to run per month. A nurse and ‘corper doctor’ were on duty. Couple with the absence of manpower, light, water, and non-availability of drugs to dispense if one is sick are major problems.
At this time it was 3:20pm and left for another village called Bilabiri community within the Dodo River and the reception wasn’t different from previous ones. It is 15 minutes drive from Amatu.
The attack of bad boys
It was all a memorable moment and everyone was in high spirit as we went back to the jetty to depart for Warri from Bilabiri at 4:22pm. I could hear Mrs Marienne Vos expressing his love for the visit and her wish to return soon to spend time with the community. Then, the journey back began as the people bade us farewell. About 17 minutes later, at Letugbene Waterfront ‘heavily armed’ men show up from the blues with passport boats shooting sporadically at the two boats conveying us. They were masked with army uniform common flags singing Ijaw War songs.
They were numbering about 10. Fearing that they may kill everybody if we don’t stop we begged the driver to slow down to know what was wrong even as the shooting continues. This reporter was at the time having discussion with the founder and CEO of Africa Web TV, Erhard Leffers, Marianne Hendricks-Vos on the endurable peace that has returned to the region. Before then, they had shot at the boat conveying some members of the communities and they all jumped into the river.
They quickly ordered everyone to lie face down from afar and jumped into the boat demanding for the Dutch Nationals, the commando jumped on my back with their hard shoes to forcedly take the five Dutch Nationals away while they still shoot sporadically. Aside the hostages, they took along with them personal belongings except my Ipad and phone that I laid on while the operation was on.
They collected everything belonging to my colleague, Mr Joe Ogbodu, who doubled as the Vice Chairman of Warri NUJ including his Ipad, Blackberry and another of his set, wallet and took out time to reap off everyone on the boat of their personal possession before leaving us in disarray in the middle of the sea.
The kidnapped Dutch Nationals were Mr. Erhard Leffers, Marianne Hendricks- Vos and Mr Jandries Groenenedijk including the two Dutch Nigerians, Comrade Ofehe; founder, Hope for Niger Delta Campaign, HNDC, who is also doubled as the publisher, Inside Niger Delta Magazine, and owner of Africa Web TV, Mr Femi Soewu. Engines of the two speed boats conveying us were shattered with gunshots and we were left stranded at Letugbene. One of the community youth leaders who led us to the event was shot died. His corpse was found three days later.
At 7pm one of the villagers provided us a speedboat through which we were conveyed to Warri that night, the longest night of my life, the night I confessed all my sins and said my last prayers. It was the night I saw death face-to-face. A night I was saved from the pellets that would have riddled my intestines and skull open. It was a night I will never forget in a hurry and long after the hostages have been released and back to Holland.
Used by the permission of the author Theophilus Onojeghen
