14 December 2016, Uyo – Some angry youths from Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom on Wednesday disrupted operations in ExxonMobil overr the sacking of some contract staff who are natives of the area.
The protesters, numbering over 1,000, barricaded all entry points to the company with boats, coffins, palm fronts and placards with different inscriptions.
Their placards had inscriptions like “ExxonMobil, pay us our terminal benefits’’; “ExxonMobil, this is the last warning,’’ “ExxonMobil should re-instate sacked contract staff from Ibeno’’ and“Gross negligence and insensitivity of ExxonMobil to the people of Ibeno”.
The angry workers, under the aegis of Amalgamation of Ibeno Youth Presidents’ Forum, Ulok Ulok people Assembly and Ijaw Youth Council, Ibeno, decried alleged marginalisation of the host communities by the company.
Mr Harry Moses, the National President of Ulok Ulok People Assembly, told NAN that ExxonMobil had failed in its Social Corporate Responsibility to the host communities.
Moses said that the sacked 48 contract staff should be reinstated or else the protest would be continued.
Also, Mr Samuel Otokere, coordinator of the groups, said the protest was peaceful, and in reaction to the injustice of ExxonMobil to the host communities.
“The reason for the protest is the recent retrenchment by ExxonMobil of indigenes of Ibeno Local Government Area of the state.
He said that the MOU signed by the host communities, ExxonMobil and the state government had not been implemented for 25 years and that the community needed a new MoU with the company.
“We are protesting so that the world can see that we are not fairly treated as the landlord and host community,’’ Otokere said.
- The Nation
