Another Oil Spill...MOBIL feigns Ignorance....

Mobil silent  As NOSDRA Confirms Another Oil Spill In Akwa Ibom

 Only in Nigeria can the oil companies be this reckless and in considerate, less than two weeks after an oil spill at the Qua Iboe fields managed by Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, oil deposits in the Atlantic coastline in Ibeno, Akwa Ibom State, have been reported.

The crude deposits on the shoreline were discovered by fishermen and residents of coastal communities in Ibeno, Esit and Eket local councils in Akwa Ibom, who promptly lodged a report with the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).



A NOSDRA official has, accordingly, confirmed that the agency got a report on the latest spill on the shores.

“As soon as we got the report, we deployed personnel to the site, even though we are still investigating the earlier incident of 13th August,” he said.

“I understand they saw tar balls at the coast. As we speak, they are still in the field and their findings will help us to know the nature and extent of the deposits; it cannot be business as usual.”

MPN maintained a long silence over the earlier spill, and its spokesman, Nigel Cookey-Gam expectedly claimed oblivion of the fresh spill when contacted for comments.

A community leader in Mkpanak community in Ibeno, Chief Okon Akpan Onwon, censured the oil firm for its less-than-decent handling of oil spill matters.,

“For over one week, Mobil people claimed they were investigating the source of the spill and till this moment they have continued in their culture of negligence and silence,” Onwon said.

“Why will it take such a long time to conduct the test and match the samples found in the beach? They have taken us for granted for too long. They were ordered to clean up the coastline since last week and they deployed merely 40 youths to clean up a 20 km stretch of shoreline; they see the job as rendering favour to the community rather than taking responsibility for their careless operations.

“Now with the fresh spills where do we go from here, we are predominantly fishermen and cannot go to the sea until the coast becomes clear again, this is one spill too many.”

Oil multinationals operating in the country have a reputation for disowning oil spills and the last reported case in Akwa Ibom on 13th August was no exception, the oil company only grudgingly taking responsibility for the cleaning-up after series of deliberations and protest from youths of the affected region.





Incidents like this continue to drive the sad point home, if our Government does not hold these Oil companies accountable for the degradation of our environment our lands will continue to be destroyed while they continue to make Billions off our natural resources...what's that they say?"a fool at 40 is a fool forever" how old is Nigeria again?.......make your own conclusions.