In a bid to shut out dissenting voices, the authorities of Ibeno local government area in Akwa Ibom state, the area most heavily-impacted by recent ExxonMobil spills, have shut out traditional rulers and community activists from making an address to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, who on Tuesday flagged off the construction of a N5 billion skills acquisition centre in Ibeno. Our reporters observed that the activists, who waited from 9 am till about 4.30 pm when the minister arrived in the council hall, which was full, were prevented from speaking with the minister, who was visiting the state unofficially in what was seen as preparation for Goodluck Jonathan's presidential visit to Akwa Ibom state today.
The advanced visit by Orubebe, it was gathered, was for a first hand report on the situation in Akwa Ibom and to brief Jonathan before his visit in view of the protests that could cause embarrassment to Jonathan in the highly insecure situation in Akwa Ibom. SaharaReporters can confirm that there is an orchestrated plan by Governor Goodwill Akpabio and Jonathan to avoid any high profile visit to the areas impacted by ExxonMobil spills sites at the Qua Iboe oil fields.
Jonathan and his oil resources minister are seen as lackeys of the multinational corporations, especially ExxonMobil. Sources in the foreign affairs ministry in Abuja told SaharaReporters that ExxonMobil was instrumental to getting Jonathan to attend last April’s nuclear weapon treaty summit in Washington where he met President Barack Obama at a time Jonathan badly needed international support as "Acting President". Jonathan included Governor Akpabio in his entourage and the delegation later met with ExxonMobil officials in the US. Shortly after returning to Nigeria, Jonathan reportedly renewed ExxonMobil leases, which include the lucrative Qua Iboe oil blocks, for a paltry $600 million, as opposed to the $1.6 billion that Chinese oil companies had offered for the oil fields. A visit by Jonathan to the oil spill sites would greatly embarrass ExxonMobil, which ought to be the case if the national interest was being put first. But the itinerary of Jonathan's Presidential visit to Akwa Ibom does not include any such visit to the impacted communities.
In the United States, President Obama has visited the communities affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico several times, and British Petrolueum has been compelled to budget $20 billion to compensate the affected people and businesses. In preventing the community activists from speaking at the ministerial event yesterday Akwa Ibom state officials and the LGA chairperson were playing safe, preventing them from voicing their discontent over the handling of oil spill compensations that Governor Akpabio brokered in May.
The local government chairman, Mrs. Regina Egbe, has been ordered by Akpabio to ensure that the community backs out of its demand for cash compensation, but the communities have resisted that pressure and chosen to seek legal redress. The stand of the activists infuriated Mrs. Egbe, who stands to fall out of favour with the governor if she fails to get her people to conform to the wishes of the government of the day.
SaharaReporters has previous reported exclusively a plan by ExxonMobil management to end any further discussion of compensation to fisherman after a Federal High Court in Asaba awarded some communities in Rivers State $100 million in monetary compensation against Shell for an oil spill that took place in 1970.
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