The primary occupation of Ibeno people- farming and fishing are on the verge of extinction following the perennial oil spills in the communities.
The 84-year-old village chairman explained that the coming of the oil companies to Ibeno was just a poisoned chalice as many of them in those days were very happy that Ibeno would experience all round development as the prospecting companies had promised. “If you want to use the water to wash clothes, no matter the quantity of detergent or soap you use, it can never foam.
Ifum lamented that without applying fertilisers, which most times are not good enough to the soil, you would not have any yield at all in your farm, adding that the effect of the fertilisers and gas flaring had put most of them in different health challenges. “We are dying, we want the whole world to hear and know what we are going through. Our government has failed us, they work with these oil companies.
Apart from losing their means of livelihood in farming and fishing, the people lamented that they have lost their ancestral lands through land grabbing by the government, saying that a good number of their lands taken by the government have been used for abandoned projects in the community. “They destroyed the whole palm fruits. Since that time, nothing has been done, they just abandoned the refinery and we can’t access the land again,” another resident lamented.