Oron Communities Heckle ExxonMobil Officials At Public Hearing

The management of ExxonMobil got a rude shock this morning at a public hearing organized by the House of Representatives on the exclusion of five local governments in the Oron Federal Constituency as oil communities.

The House Joint Committee on Environment is currently holding public hearings on the plight of the five local government areas that make up the constituency which have suffered environmental degradation on account of oil production activities yet been excluded by oil firms as host communities.

The venue of the public hearing, the Oron Civic Centre, was filled to capacity, and the large crowd shouted down Mobil’s Executive Director, Mrs. Gloria Essien-Dannar, as soon as she took the podium to address the Committee.

Mrs. Essien-Danner had begun her remarks with the words, “The hall where we are is an example of our impact on this community…” but it was a misplaced unfortunate introduction that was promptly booed and drowned out, to the surprise of the members of the Committee.
The Committee Chairman, Mrs Uche Ekwunife, rose to intervene on behalf of the Director of External Relations, providing a soft landing for her to leave the stage.  But Mrs. Ekwunife had a tough time calming the frayed nerves in the hall, and had to resort to singing choruses to soothe the tension.

The Mobil executive was compelled to withdraw the claim, and she later explained that it had assisted the Oron Union with the construction of the fence at the Centre.

SaharaReporters gathered that Mobil management was emboldened by the understanding they had reached with the legislators under which the firm had deployed one of its aircraft to airlift the committee members in exchange for a favorable disposition. 

The members of the community said that it was both provocative and dishonest for the oil firm to claim to have built the Civic Centre when, in fact, the hall was built from contributions made by members of Oron Union.

“It goes to show that Mobil is a company that has no conscience and believes in deceit, how could they make such a misleading claim in our presence, who knows what they report to their home offices about their host communities when we are not there?” asked Michael Ediete, a member of Oron Union.

He added: “These people are shameless, and the public outrage that greeted her claims has sent the right signals to the committee and the whole world.”

Other oil firms and government agencies equally made presentations and submitted memos to the committee.