Akwa Ibom fishermen go after Mobil

Daily Times

9 August 2011

Akwa Ibom fishermen go after Mobil

Fishermen and communities along the Atlantic coastline in Akwa Ibom State have urged the management of Mobil Producing Nigeria to accept responsibility for oil spills in the area.

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.”