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| File photo: Scene of the October 2013 protest against Mobil in Eket |
Few weeks to the governorship election in Akwa Ibom State,
one question that Governor Godswill Akpabio and his Peoples Democratic Party
must answer, and convincingly so, is: what went wrong with N26.5billion supposedly
paid by Mobil Producing Nigeria to Eket, Ibeno, Onna and Esit Eket as compensation
for the November 2012 oil spill?
The troubling question has remained unanswered for about
three years now since the people of Eket first accused Godswill Akpabio of
meddling with an issue they considered was strictly between Mobil and its host
communities. The issue has now become a political one against the governor and his
party, PDP. And of course the opposition All Progressives Congress is reaping
political capital from the situation.
“The people of Eket are very angry with Akpabio over the oil
spill money,” Mr. Godwin Akwaowo, the chapter chairman of APC in Eket Local
Government Area told journalists in Eket, during the party governorship rally
in the area. Before speaking with journalists, Godwin Akwaowo had mounted the
podium to persuade Eket people to show their anger against Godswill Akpabio for
‘taking our oil spill compensation money’ by voting against PDP in the
forthcoming general elections.
A former commissioner of health in Akpabio’s administration,
Dr. Emem Wills similarly told the crowd at the rally that Akpabio was playing
politics with the oil spill compensation. He said the governor was deceiving
Eket people as far as compensation for the oil spill was concerned. “I was a
member of PDP, and I can tell you that there’s something fundamentally wrong
with PDP in Akwa Ibom State,” Dr. Wills told the crowd of APC supporters.
The rumour, which was later confirmed to be true, was that
Governor Godswill Akpabio wanted Mobil to release the compensation money to the
Akwa Ibom State government for it to use it to construct Etinan-Eket-Ibeno
Road, a proposal that was said to have been accepted by the oil company, but
rejected by the host communities. The host communities, ravaged by hunger and
poverty, and decades of environmental pollution, saw the money as a lifeline
that should have been handed down directly to the victims of the November 2012
oil spill.
The people’s suspicion heightened against Governor Godswill
Akpabio and Mobil Producing Nigeria every passing day. In one instance, in late
2013, the paramount ruler of Esit Eket, Ubong Peter Assam was abducted by
persons who wrongly thought he had received some oil spill compensation money
from Mobil. In October, 2013 the host communities of Eket, Ibeno, Onna and Esit
Eket protested for days around Mobil facilities in the areas, demanding for the
payment of the N26.5billion.
The protest, organised under the aegis of Eket Federal
Constituency Vanguard led by Isaiah Abia and William Mkpa, paralysed the
company’s operations at its airstrip in Eket, Mobil Terminal in Ibeno, and
Mobil Housing Estate in Eket.
The tensed situation then forced Governor Godswill Akpabio
to deny the rumour that Mobil had paid the compensation money to the Akwa Ibom
State government. “The state government has never received any money from the
company as speculated, and no paramount ruler or royal father from the oil
producing communities has received any money from the company neither has the
company given any money to the state government,” Governor Akpabio said when
the Executive Vice-Chairman of Mobil, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, paid him a
courtesy visit in Uyo, in November, 2013.
The governor used Kachikwu’s visit to announce that the
state government had set up a committee to find solution for the payment of the
N26.5 billion oil spill compensation.
The victims of the oil spill are yet to receive any monetary
compensation from Mobil till date, and every piece of information available
suggests that the oil company may have collaborated with the Akwa Ibom State
government to put the money into the re-construction of Etinan-Eket-Ibeno Road
which seemed to have been abandoned for now.
“Akpabio had no business coming into the oil spill money, it
was entirely between Mobil and the host communities,” said the APC Chapter
Chairman in Eket, Mr. Godwin Akwaowo who confirmed to reporters that none of
the victims of the oil spill received money from Mobil.
Akwaowo alleged that the governor collected a loan of N30
billion for the Etinan-Eket-Ibeno Road but refused to put the money into the
road project.
“Mobil partnered with Akwa Ibom State government to do the
road. Mobil has paid its counterpart funds of about N11 billion, but the state
government has refused to pay its own part of the money,” Mr. Akwaowo alleged.
The APC leader said, “Except for someone that is ignorant,
Eket Federal Constituency has no business voting for PDP.”
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