2015 election: N26.5 billion Eket oil spill money haunts PDP, Akpabio

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?

Exclusive: How one Akwa Ibom traditional ruler shared N400 million oil spill compensation money to himself and family

Edidem Akpabio Udo Ukpa, Paramount Ruler, Onna Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State

By Nse Peter

THINK AKWA IBOM! is in possession of documents which reveal how the paramount ruler of Onna Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, Edidem Akpabio Udo Ukpa in 2011 allocated several millions of oil spill compensation money to himself and his family through questionable award of construction contracts.

The money, said to be about N400 million, was given to Onna late 2011 by Mobil Producing Nigeria, a subsidiary of oil giant, ExxonMobil, as compensation for the 2010 oil spill from Mobil’s offshore facility which destroyed aquatic lives and farmlands in the area.