They narrated horrific experiences encountered during fishing expeditions, especially with pirates’ attack and hazardous nature of gas flaring.
Ibeno, one of the coastal oil producing communities in Akwa Ibom State with a sole occupation of fishing, occupies over 1,200 sq. kms of land stretching from Okposo I at the eastern flank, bordering Mbo Local Government Area and Bakassi Peninsula to Atabrikang village on its Western flank. The activities of the multinational company, no doubt, have impacted negatively on the community’s source of livelihood which is fishing and had brought untold hardship to the people which made the community call on them to clean up the mess in the community before divesting.
According to him, “We don’t have good access to our businesses in terms of fishing, gas flaring is disturbing our water a lot. Before now, the fishes were close to our ocean but because of pollution, you now need to move into the high sea, which takes several litres of fuel. “When the sea storm rises, we divert to where we could land safely; they would come there, attack us and take away all our belongings such as net, boat engine which cost about three million Naira each, they always attack around 2 or 3am when our men go out fishing.
He urged them to organize themselves to demand their rights from relevant authorities, enumerating the rights to include among others: the right to health, decent occupation and a healthy environment.