June 25, 2010
{joomplu:2244}{joomplu:2242}{joomplu:2237}In a bid to keeping with his plot to frustrate the compensation process in the numerous pending oil spill compensation cases, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa biome State has ordered Ibeno community to accept the ‘projects’ dangled by the management of ExxonMobil in lieu of clean up of contaminated of farmlands, marine environment and shoreline in the Niger Delta area.
{joomplu:2244}{joomplu:2242}{joomplu:2237}In a bid to keeping with his plot to frustrate the compensation process in the numerous pending oil spill compensation cases, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa biome State has ordered Ibeno community to accept the ‘projects’ dangled by the management of ExxonMobil in lieu of clean up of contaminated of farmlands, marine environment and shoreline in the Niger Delta area.
Sahara Reporters investigations has uncovered that community leaders who insisted on compensation for fishermen and affected members of the community as well as a comprehensive clean up plan by ExxonMobil has been threatened by the state government.
It was gathered that some of the leaders who spearheaded a boycott of ExxonMobil "community parley" have received threat text messages and phone calls from Akpabio’s hitsquad lately.
Akwa Ibom presently has the highest kidnap rate in Nigeria and some of the suspects so far interrogated by police confessed to be working for Gov. Akpabio, a development that led to cold blooded murder of such suspects in police custody.
The development further confirms an earlier exclusive SaharaReporters report of Akpabio’s attempts to sabotage the aspirations and struggle for peasants in the affected areas to get compensation from ExxonMobil for losses they incurred from oil spills.
Ibeno community, hosts to ExxonMobil in Nigeria has declined to participate in meetings with the oilmultinational to resolve the face off sparked off by frequent oil spills from the Qua Iboe oil fields.
SaharaReporters gathered that representatives of the community stayed away from the meetings to press for payment of cash compensation rather than projects proposed by the oil firm.
Eket, Esit Eket and Onna local government representatives have been attending the meetings with officials of ExxonMobil who promised to award contracts for projects chosen by the community to the tune of N2 billion. But community activists told our reporters that it is just a patronage package that doesn't address the continuos flow of oil spill from ExxonMobil facilities in Qua Iboe.
It will be recalled that Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom convened a stakeholders meeting between the four neighbouring communities affected by the May 1, 2010 oil spill after a major protest ostensibly to deliver the promises he made to Exxon officials who had induced him to do so.
The meeting reportedly resolved that each council area should raise a committee to meet with the oil firm to agree on acceptable projects to be funded by the oil company.
However, a village head in one of the communities in Ibeno local government area of Akwa Ibom said that it was regrettable that rather than resolve the main cause of the frequent oil spills the company chose to deliberate on token community development projects.
“Ibeno shall have nothing to do with any of such meetings calculated to waste valuable time; our position remains that compensation for damages and losses incurred by fishermen and the community as well a comprehensive clean up plan is non negotiable.
“Community development project is their social responsibility to the community and it has nothing to do with the damages they did to our environment, they are not in any way related to each other and cannot be exchanged” Ukot said.
Another community leader vowed that no amount of intimidation from the governor will make them shift ground as there was no impact of the billions of Naira that accrues to Akwa Ibom from the federation accounts monthly on Ibeno land where the resourced emanated from.
ExxonMobil’s Qua Iboe terminal building housing the administrative block and crude processing facilities is located in Mkpanak in Ibeno local government.
Sahara Reporters investigations has uncovered that community leaders who insisted on compensation for fishermen and affected members of the community as well as a comprehensive clean up plan by ExxonMobil has been threatened by the state government.
It was gathered that some of the leaders who spearheaded a boycott of ExxonMobil "community parley" have received threat text messages and phone calls from Akpabio’s hitsquad lately.
Akwa Ibom presently has the highest kidnap rate in Nigeria and some of the suspects so far interrogated by police confessed to be working for Gov. Akpabio, a development that led to cold blooded murder of such suspects in police custody.
The development further confirms an earlier exclusive SaharaReporters report of Akpabio’s attempts to sabotage the aspirations and struggle for peasants in the affected areas to get compensation from ExxonMobil for losses they incurred from oil spills.
Ibeno community, hosts to ExxonMobil in Nigeria has declined to participate in meetings with the oilmultinational to resolve the face off sparked off by frequent oil spills from the Qua Iboe oil fields.
SaharaReporters gathered that representatives of the community stayed away from the meetings to press for payment of cash compensation rather than projects proposed by the oil firm.
Eket, Esit Eket and Onna local government representatives have been attending the meetings with officials of ExxonMobil who promised to award contracts for projects chosen by the community to the tune of N2 billion. But community activists told our reporters that it is just a patronage package that doesn't address the continuos flow of oil spill from ExxonMobil facilities in Qua Iboe.
It will be recalled that Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom convened a stakeholders meeting between the four neighbouring communities affected by the May 1, 2010 oil spill after a major protest ostensibly to deliver the promises he made to Exxon officials who had induced him to do so.
The meeting reportedly resolved that each council area should raise a committee to meet with the oil firm to agree on acceptable projects to be funded by the oil company.
However, a village head in one of the communities in Ibeno local government area of Akwa Ibom said that it was regrettable that rather than resolve the main cause of the frequent oil spills the company chose to deliberate on token community development projects.
“Ibeno shall have nothing to do with any of such meetings calculated to waste valuable time; our position remains that compensation for damages and losses incurred by fishermen and the community as well a comprehensive clean up plan is non negotiable.
“Community development project is their social responsibility to the community and it has nothing to do with the damages they did to our environment, they are not in any way related to each other and cannot be exchanged” Ukot said.
Another community leader vowed that no amount of intimidation from the governor will make them shift ground as there was no impact of the billions of Naira that accrues to Akwa Ibom from the federation accounts monthly on Ibeno land where the resourced emanated from.
ExxonMobil’s Qua Iboe terminal building housing the administrative block and crude processing facilities is located in Mkpanak in Ibeno local government.
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