N26.5b oil spill compensation: Angry youths shut down Exxonmobil in Eket

ExxonMobil operations in its Qua Iboe Terminal, QIT, base in Eket , Akwa Ibom State, were brought to a halt on Thursday, as youth and indigenes of the oil communities took to the streets to protest the non-settlement of the N26.5 billion oil spill compensation.

Ibomcelebs gathered that the protest, which was staged simultaneously around the company's airstrip in Eket, Mobil Terminal in Ibeno, and Mobil Housing Estate in Eket, saw placard wielding indigenes of Eket Federal Constituency registering their displeasure over the alleged refusal of the company to fully settle the four oil producing local governments over the oil spill as previously proposed.

Some youth leaders under the aegis of Eket Federal Constituency Vanguard led by Isaiah Abia and William Mkpa, accused the management of ExxonMobil of being insensitive to the plight of the host communities, by refusing to pay the compensation for the 2012 oil spill incident that they claimed negatively impacted aquatic life and environment in the four communities in the area.

They claimed the incident had rendered several members of the communities jobless, apart from the deplorable condition of social infrastructure in the area and other hazards resulting from the extractive activities of the oil firm.

They threatened to completely cripple the operations of the company if its management failed to take steps to redress the problem, demanding the immediate redeployment of the Managing Director of Exxon Mobil, Mark Ward, over his alleged rejection of the overtures from the communities for dialogue.

At the Mobil airstrip in Eket, plantain suckers where planted at the entrances, while the youth locked the gate with padlocks, as a detachment of policemen deployed to prevent protest from degenerating watched from a distance.

Mr. Abia, who addressed the protesters at the Mobil Terminal, Ibeno, said there was no going back on their demand on the ExxonMobil management, saying the protest march came at the expiration of the seven days ultimatum issued earlier to the authorities of Mobil last week.

He said the people of the areas where totally against a suggestion that ExxonMobil wanted to use the oil spill compensation fund to execute projects in the communities, maintaining that such a notion was an attestation to the nonchalant attitude of the ExxonMobil management.