OIL and gas host communities in Itsekiriland of Delta State on Wednesday called on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation to fix the ailing Warri Refinery without further delay.

They also urged Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company to carry out a proper clean-up of the four host communities rivers to WRPC Warri and Nigeria Gas Company, which they (firms) had allegedly polluted since December 2019, according to The PUNCH.

These were contained in a petition dispatched to NNPC by the umbrella Itsekiri organisation, the Itsekiri Liberation Group, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri on Wednesday.

The petition signed by its Secretary, Omagbemi Ajofortan, and two other executive members, Okorodudun Gbesimi and Prince Micheal Golly respectively, warned NNPC to put a halt to “the secret privatisation of Warri refinery and the PPMC Jetty without notifying the host communities”.

The Itsekiri communities gave NNPC a three-week ultimatum to call the community leadership, the workers and royal fathers to a roundtable discussion for a solution to the issues at stake.

They threatened that “failure by NNPC to do this, the security of the multinational servicing companies’ staffs will not be guaranteed in the communities and the WRPC plant area”.