By Samuel Ogenyi, Uyo
Residents of Emeroke Kingdom in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State now live in miserable condition following the incursion of the community by waters of the Athlantic ocean.
The situation has affected the social and economic activities of the people with many residents rendered homeless and properties worth millions of naira destroyed.
The kingdom houses 13 oil wells among other unnamed wells and export line isolation point 1 of OML 13 formerly owned by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) recently acquired by NPDC and currently operated by Sterling Global.
It is one of the core hosts to Amni International Petroleum Development Company operating offshore of Eastern Obolo and is reputed to have the largest gas deposits in West Africa.
In a Save Our Soul statememt by tla socio cultural organisation in the area, Utono Obolo, leaders from the community leaders expressed worry over the activities of oil companies within the area adding that their pleas to the state government and lawmakers representing them have yielded no fruit.
According to the statement endorsed by the association’s chairman, Barr Sunday Afikpo, “we the members of Utono Obolo, a Pan -Obolo Social Culture Association with membership spread from Eastern Obolo, Ibeno, Oron Nation and Andoni in Rivers State hereby write to bring to your notice the flooding situation in one of our ancient kingdoms of Obolo land.
“Following the activities of the oil companies within Eastern Obolo, there has been serious environmental degradation leading to marine, gully, and sheet erosions, perpetrated by the continuous Atlantic Ocean incursion on the shorelines of Emereoke Kingdom.
“The last straw that broke Carmel’s back is the bitter experience of Sunday, September 20, 2020, which our people woke up to see that the entire Kingdom has been submerged by water.
“The increase in the tidal waves occasioned by the companies’ crude oil production activities overflowed into the various communities within the kingdom and submerged them. As we write properties worth millions of naira are already lost to the flood. Some families are already displaced. There is tension everywhere.” The statement said.
They said that the disaster has brought untold hardship and economic loss to the people of Emereoke and asked for government intervention.
“We ask for the immediate intervention of the Government in the provision of relief materials such as alternative accommodation, or camp and beddings, provision of food materials as the people of Emereoke have lost food items running into Millions of Naira and their sources of livelihood have been destroyed by the flood.
“We plead for the provision of the grant to the women of the communities to help recover the loses caused by the flood incidents and long-term intervention such as shoreline embarkment and protection to forestall future occurrences of such incident.” They lamented.
