Akwa Ibom fishermen go after Mobil

The groups were reacting on Monday to Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) admission of responsibility for oil spills in Ogoni in Rivers State.

Rev. Samuel Ayadi, the Akwa Ibom State chapter Chairman of Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria (ARFAN), said that Mobil, which operates the Qua Iboe oil fields had
refused to accept responsibility for several spills in its operational area in the past 10 years.

“What Shell did is a clear indication that the era of oil companies exploiting the loopholes in our legal system is over,” he said. “Henceforth, we shall be seeking redress in their home
countries. We have signed a pact with Friends of the Earth International, an NGO affiliated with Green Peace, to seek legal redress for oil spills caused by Mobil at the Qua Iboe oil fields.

But it is better that they emulate the example of Shell and save the resources they would have expended on litigation and channel it to offsetting the outstanding compensation claims.”

He said it was regrettable that Mobil, an ExxonMobil subsidiary in Nigeria, had consistently flouted court judgments that compelled them to indemnify people who suffered losses as a result of oil spills.

The fishermen, as law abiding citizens, had refrained from seeking self-help in spite of the insensitive posture of the oil firm in cases spanning over 10 years piling up without payment.

“In the February 24, 2008 spill incident, a committee was set up by the Akwa Ibom Government and the committee recommended that Mobil should pay but they refused,” he said. “Even when we get judgements from courts still they do not pay so we have no option that to adopt the strategy of Ogoni people against Shell.”

Also, Ekpu Johnson, the President of Ekid Peoples Union, a socio-cultural organisation of Eket People in southern Akwa Ibom, said that the Ogoni oil Spill case had vindicated the oil communities.

“Shell had maintained that the communities were the cause of the spills in a bid to evade payment of compensation but suddenly made a summersault when it became obvious that the long arms of the law had caught up with them,” he said. “We hope that Mobil will not wait for us to go the way of the Ogoni people, we expect them to be responsible or else we shall be prepared to go the whole length with them.

We have a slightly different situation in Akwa Ibom here when even established cases of spills caused by ruptured pipelines by the regulators, yet the oil company still drags its feet to pay victims.”