The stretch of road that ushers one into the largely rural hamlets and villages that make up Ibeno local council of Akwa Ibom State is lined with some 18 hurriedly constructed structures that house officers of the Nigerian Police Mobile Force.
It is also evident that there is a surfeit of policemen in the area. Yet, this did not bring with it any sense of security for either the people, or the most important organisation in the area – Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, the subsidiary of America’s oil giant, ExxonMobil Corporation.
Now the entire state is gripped by the news that Mobil Producing Nigeria is planning to move some of its key departments located in Ibeno to Lagos because of fears of insecurity.
The departments are Procurement and Contracts, Catering Services, Marine Procurement, and Technical Services.
Mobil spokesmen, who denied any plans to relocate any of the company’s departments, described the report as “another wicked rumour” against the company.
Recently, youth in various villages and hamlets within the area came out in their hundreds to protest the planned relocation.
“We are here to demonstrate against this heartlessness on the part of Mobil,” their leaders said. “Having exploited our area, made so much money, destroyed aquatic and human life, caused so much pain and death to our people, Mobil now gives the whole world the impression that Ibeno is not safe for them. They have more than 90 platforms in Ibeno and Akwa Ibom waters. Why did they have to move five key departments?”
The state’s governor, Godswill Akpabio, was said to have spoken with the management of Mobil following the anger of the people over the relocation plans. A source in the Government House, Uyo, said the company assured the governor that they were not moving to Lagos.
No relocation plan
An official of the Public Affairs Department of Mobil Producing Nigeria, Rita Umoren, denied the rumour and insisted that Mobil had not moved any of its departments.
“There is no relocation,” she said. “I want you to know there is no relocation of any department in Mobil to anywhere.”
The community said it felt scandalised by all the talk of insecurity in the area – and the overwhelming presence of policemen.
The community said the fear of insecurity has only boosted security contractors and alienated them from the company they play host to.
Sunday Okon Akpan, a leader of the Mkpanak communities, which border Mobil’s oil tank farm, said: “Aside from destroying our environment, which occurs here everyday through oil spills, the antics used by the company to deny the people of a stable symbiotic relationship, particularly in terms of employment and the development of the area by raising alarm of insecurity, is detested. Our people are not militants. Mobil should stop creating that impression.”
He said all the people had ever asked for was for the company to do enough to ameliorate the impact of its activities on the environment.
Official information from internal sources in Mobil claim that from the over 90 platforms of the company operating in the Akwa Ibom territorial waters off-shore, the company produces a little over 800 million barrels of oil per day.
ExxonMobil, the parent company to Mobil Producing Nigeria, declared a net income of $45.22 billion in 2008.
The Police say they did not think the heavy presence of police officers in the communities constituted any danger to the people. Police Public Relations Office at the Akwa Ibom State Command, Gabriel Ngban, said the police “is on top of the situation right now. The police has zero-tolerance for militancy and other forms of crime”.
Mr. Ngban said the large contingent of well trained and armed policemen will “deter” any form of attack on the community.
But the Nda Mmong Ibeno, Effiong Achianga, a highly respected traditional ruler in the area, disagreed. He said this “has destroyed the decent state and standard of living” of the Ibeno people.
Majority of the people are fishermen or traders who buy or sell to them. They all depend on the ocean.
A hard life all round
The landing bay for sea-faring small boats in Ibeno, which is the receding shoreline beside the abandoned jetty of Mobil Producing Nigeria, is a beehive of dangerous activities.
As boats land, and the local women and fishermen struggle to off-load their catch for the day, they have to immerse themselves into the brackish water of the lagoon that is filled with effluents, human waste and the various chemical substances emptied into the water by Mobil and its various contractors.
In the growing shanty of reeds beside the jetty, where thousands of people live in sub-human conditions, there are no sanitary facilities like toilets; no standard health facilities; no functional water facility; and no infrastructure to support decent human living.
A careful look at the marine products brought from the sea reveals another strand of danger that may not be readily noticed.
Fishes are said to have not only grown smaller, but are rarer to get.
Prawns, oysters, shrimps, crayfish and other products which were in abundance before now, are said to be poisonous.
Then the people have to deal with sporadic gunshots from time to time by the police, allegedly on the orders of some security contractors.
Mr. Akpan said if the community were involved in the process of making decisions that impact on their lives, then things would be good.
“If ExxonMobil were sincere, they should have integrated the community into its security, taking advantage of the local content and the understanding of the terrain by the local people,” he said.