Solar Project Workers Held Hostage By Community Leaders, Ransom Demanded

<p><em>Solar project workers held hostage<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has reliably gathered that tension is currently brewing in Oviri-Olomu Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to fresh information made available to OpenLife&comma; workers in a solar power project in the community have been held hostage ostensibly on the instruction of the President General of Oviri-Olomu Community&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Olorogun John A&period; Ewenede<&sol;a>&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to the narrative&comma; trouble started on Saturday&comma; October 23&comma; 2021&comma; when they stormed the site and ordered the workers to stop work on the grounds that the President General requested for money to be paid to him and his executives in the name of &&num;8220&semi;DEVE&&num;8221&semi; being settlement before the work can go on&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Supervisor handling the Project&comma; Mr&period; Emmanuel Tochukwu&comma; explained that following the threats including pressure from the youth leader&comma; Mr&period; Stephen Urhobojevwe Ebrobota&comma; his managing director&comma; transferred N20&comma;000 into an account&colon; Account Name&comma; Hyacinth Oghenemurhoko&comma; First Bank Limited&comma; Account No&colon; 3085729347 that October 23&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The account details&comma; according to him&comma; were supplied by the community for the ransom to be paid for his workers to regain freedom after several hours of being held hostage&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He stated further that after making the payment&comma; the same group of persons came back on Sunday&comma; 24th October 2021 to demand another &num;30&comma;000 which they say&comma; my MD must still pay before my workers can start further work in the Community&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Tochukwu who is obviously disturbed about the level of exploitation and distractions said&comma; &&num;8220&semi;when the threat became too much&comma; I placed a call to one Chief Jones Ipoko who happened to be the anchorman of the community in the Project to inform him about what was going on&comma;” he narrated&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;They insisted that the money must be paid by my managing director and that without paying the money none of our workers will leave the site thereby holding my workers hostage for several hours on that day&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;When contacted&comma; the State Chairmen&comma; Committee for the Defence of Human Rights&comma; Senior Comrade Elder &lpar;Chief&rpar; A&period;P&period; Edariese confirmed the incident saying that Tochukwu has been in touch with him over the matter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;