NORSDRA conspiring with ExxonMobil to frustrate oil spill clean-up – AKIPCO

A non-governmental organisation, Akwa Ibom Oil Producing Community Network (AKIPCON) has accused Akwa Ibom state branch of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) of conniving with ExxonMobil to block crude oil spill recovery, clean up, remediation and damage assessment in the state.

This was contained in a letter marked AKIP/CN/S.1.VOL.2/48 addressed to the Executive Secretary of NORSDRA in Abuja. It was jointly signed by the President General and Secretary General of AKIPCON, Dr Ufot Phenson and Mr. Emmanuel Bassey, respectively.

The organisation wondered why NORSDRA should neglect its mandate of crude oil spill recovery, clean up, remediation and damage assessment as contained in its attached Regulations 25 and 26 of 2011 and rather clung only onto oil spill detection.

“We write to notify the executive secretary of the ongoing connivance by National Oil Spill Detection & Response Agency (NOSDRA), Akwa Ibom State Zonal Office with Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (Exxon Mobil) which hinders the execution of its official mandate of crude oil spill recovery, clean up, remediation and damage assessment as contained in the attached NOSDRA Regulations 25 & 26 of 2011.

“Sir, the official responsibilities of NOSDRA as mentioned above in the circumstance of crude oil spill is to ensure the restoration and preservation of the environment through the use of best oil field, storage and transmission practices in exploration, production and use of oil to achieve sustainable development and peace in oil producing areas of Akwa Ibom state and the Niger Delta region.

“Instead, the agency in Akwa Ibom state is only focusing on oil spill detection thereby abandoning other key areas of their core mandate including spilled oil recovery, clean-up, remediation and damage assessment.

“The vision of the agency to create, nurture, and sustain a zero tolerance oil spill incident in our environment has been deliberately neglected and compromised due to the existing official connivance with Exxon Mobil which has denied the peasant fishermen and farmers of their human, environmental, socio-economic rights and compensation after suffering unwarranted damages from the oil spills. This is contrary to the provisions of African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.”

AKIPCON alleged that the agency, right from its inception in the state had never for once conducted a single damage assessment, let alone the remediation of the impacted sites.

They accused the agency of trying to trick and manipulate the people by carrying out Joint Inspection Visit (JIV) in an unspecified manner instead of using the official template.

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