ExxonMobil: You’ve no justification not relocating to A-Ibom —Communities

By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor

After years of demand by its host communities to relocate its headquarters to Akwa Ibom State, host communities of Exxon Mobil have told the company that its reasons for not moving its headquarters to the state are no longer tenable.

For that reason, the oil firm’s core communities, in collaboration with their paramount rulers and a technical committee raised to look into the matter, have said that they will no longer fold their hands and allow the company to continue to advance provocative and unjustifiable reasons for not relocating to Akwa Ibom, where it operates.

The position of the people is contained in a communiqué at the end of a strategic joint meeting by the Core Communities Paramount Rulers Forum and Mobil Producing Unlimited Core Community Technical Committee at the palace of the Paramount Ruler of Ibeno, where Mobil production facilities are in Akwa Ibom State.

The people in the communiqué noted that ExxonMobil had no more justifiable reasons to stay back in Lagos and take oil from the state since all the hindrances it has been using in the past to justify its action had since been cleared.

They accused the oil firm of being afraid to relocate to the state so as not to expose its expatriate and senior officials to the environmental hazards it had caused in the state through its production activities since 1955, which are now becoming a source of health problems to the people.

They said: “The company has always claimed that it was not feasible to relocate at various times in the past because of a number of reasons, including insecurity but the community feels that the American oil company is simply scared of its shadow.

“We have it on good authority that ExxonMobil is deeply worried about exposing its expatriates and other senior workers to the hazards of the environmental pollution and devastation they have caused through long years of negligent operation.

“They have refused to move over because they know the level of destruction their operations have brought to the land and people of Akwa Ibom State and so they believe the environment is unsafe, health-wise, for their senior staff considering the frequency of early deaths and reduced life span of the inhabitants of the area.

“It is important to reiterate that as at now, all constraints envisaged in the past have been overtaken by developments in the polity. With the GSM and broadband infrastructure, communication is no longer an issue. An airport is now available within 30 minutes of its operational area. Infrastructure facilities are much improved and nearly perfect.

“The excuse recently canvassed by ExxonMobil that its three companies are coordinated from its Lagos office is grossly deficient, untenable and not even worth discussion. It is a mere hyperbole designed to cover the real reason for its refusal to relocate. Mobil Oil Nigeria Limited has been bought over by NIMPCO and that nullifies the argument.”

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