Akwa Ibom Oil Community Considers Int’l Court Over Alleged Oil Spills

Apparently worried by the American oil giant, ExxonMobil’s persistent refusal to honour its obligation of environmental remediation for Ibeno, the firm’s major oil-producing community in Akwa Ibom State is considering dragging the company to an international court.

Ibeno, host community and operational base hosting the Qua Iboe Terminal (QIT) at Upenekang, in Ibeno local government area has repeatedly called on the company to have a comprehensive audit of the environmental, social, health and economic damage its extractive activities had caused and ensure adequate remediations and reparation, to no avail.

The agitations, our correspondent gathered, intensified in 2022 when ExxonMobil announced plans to sell its off – shore assets to Seplat Energy, having extracted crude from the community for about 62 years. 

The community in a one-day Community Diagnostic Dialogue (CDD) at the village hall in Upenekang on issues of oil pollution organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), vowed that they would consider approaching an international court as, according to them, “ExxonMobil has no respect for court judgements in Nigeria as shown in the past.”

They noted that a Nigerian court had ruled against the firm, ordering it to compensate the community, a judgement which they lamented had not been adhered to.

Speaking with journalists at the the forum , the president, Upenekang Town Council (UTC) Chief Godwin Efanga, said Mobil had ignored several petitions on the need to carry out an immediate and comprehensive audit of the community before leaving.