Nigeria Content Online

Niger Delta youth
in Akwa Ibom State have demanded for compensation for oil spillage from
Exxon Mobil. The youth who held a protest march to Edoho platform in
Ibeno, Akwa Ibom State yesterday, claimed that they had won two cases
against Mobil in the Federal High Court, Yenogoa and the Appeal Court,
Lagos, leading to their demands for the compensation.

Alleging that
Mobil had deliberately failed to adhere to the court directive
compelling it to pay compensation money for oil spills that occurred in
1998, 2003, 2004 and 2005 in the region, the youths noted that they
embarked on the peaceful protest to present their grievances to the oil
company against the delayed payment of the compensation worth millions
of naira.

The protesting
youth numbering about 2,500 were from four organisations namely: Ijaw
National Congress (INC), Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Ijaw Survival
Movement of the Niger Delta ( ISMOND) and Movement for the Survival of
Ethnic Nationality in Niger Delta (MOFEND) came under one body to
canvass for the attention of Mobil.

They are made up
of all aggrieved parties relating to the oil spill issue drawn from the
seven Niger Delta states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River,
Edo, Delta and Ondo.

No court order

However, a
management staff of Mobil, who did not want to be named, insisted that
they had not received any court directive. “There is no court case
against us on this matter. What they are saying is that this matter has
been on for so long. We even asked them today because we met with them
and we asked them to show us the court case; they don’t have. I even
argued that if there was a court case, the bailiff will be the one to
enforce the court judgment not the plaintiff. There is no court case on
this matter.” He said. As at the time of going to press, Mobil was yet
to come out with an official statement on the issue as they had
promised.

Mobil lied

Speaking to NEXT,
the leaders of the youth groups: Erekosima Tariah, National President,
MOFEND; Godwin Robert, Chairman, Akwa Ibom Youths, MOFEND; Victor
Obioso and Godwin Idim, co-coordinators for Okobo and Esit Eket and
Onna local government areas respectively said: “We had a court ruling
in our favour which said Mobil should pay us the 2008 oil spillage
compensation. Since 2007, we got the court ruling, Mobil lawyers have
been coming to court and keep telling the court that they will settle
out of court for two years now. We can no longer continue that way
because we don’t see them as a multinational that is ready and willing
to obey the rule of law and we decided to embark on the peaceful
protest that we did embark on today.

“There is a court ruling which we will prove to them, but the court
did not actually tell them to pay us a certain sum. The payment will be
in three different forms. There are some claimants that filed their
cases in court that they call individual suits or personal claims,
there are some that are under the communities and there are some that
are under the communities.” They explained.