Probe Chevron’s violation of COVID-19 protocol, HEDA tells FG

Kunle AkinsolaApril 21, 2020322

…circumventing the rules, an insult to govt, Nigerians

The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) wants the Federal Government to probe the oil giant, Chevron Nigeria Ltd, for alleged disregard of COVID-19 protocol.

HEDA Resource Centre said the lodging of 100 Chevron’s officials in a private hotel in Warri, Delta, on their return from abroad “constitutes a great risk to Nigerian public health and security.”

The Chairman, Mr Olanrewaju Suraju, said on Tuesday that the action of Chevron was a brazen assault on the integrity of Nigeria as a sovereign country.”What Chevron did failed to comply with corporate responsibility. It undermines the public safety rules and appears to portray Chevron as seeing itself above the laws and regulations of Nigeria,” Suraju said in a statement a copy of which was obtained by PerSecondnews.

According to him, the action of Chevron compromised Nigeria’s strategic security as it regards public health defence mechanism announced by the federal and state governments.

He demanded: “The Chevron as a corporate entity, its responsible officials and the managment of the hotel responsible for this assault on Nigerian laws should be made to account for their misdeeds.

“Nigeria needs to prove that no private oil company is bigger than the country.”

He called on the Federal Government through the Ministry of Justice to immediately institute a probe into the COVID-19 protocol violations.Suraju said it was necessary to know to what extent the health of the hotel workers and those living in the neighbourhood had been compromised.

“We call on the Federal Government to institute a probe panel to determine the degree and extent that public safety has been compromised by Chevron. This has to be done to prevent future reoccurrence. ”

Chevron in media reports was accused of “isolating” 100 of its officials in Cyprian Hotels and Suits, a private Hotel located in Warri.

The workers were suspected to have been exposed to COVID-19 following days of holidays abroad.

The Federal Government‘s rule is that suspected COVID-19 patients be placed in government designated isolation centres for ease of monitoring and tracking.

The Warri hotel reportedly owned by a retired Inspector-General of Police who allegedly forced his workers to return to work to attend to the Chevron workers, thereby exposing them, their families and the entire state to possible COVID-19 infections.

The worker have reportedly expressed deep worry about the “cost” of attending to the 100 Chevron staff.

Meanwhile, the Legal Adviser to the hotel, Mr Omuli Iwere, had claimed that none of the oil workers exhibited COVID-19 symptoms.

Chevron had said it placed its staff under quarantine in the Warri hotel contrary to the rules of the Federal Government, National Centre for Disease Control and the State’s Ministry of Health guidelines.