JOE EFFIONG, UYO
The leadership of Unified Ex-EXXONMOBIL Workers comprising Janitorial Service Staff, and Unified Catering Workforce haver staged a peaceful protest on Qua Iboe Terminal premises of the oil giant demanding the payment of their severance entitlements eleven years after the were alleged retrenched by the company.
Speaking on behalf of the Ex-Janitorial Staff, their leader, Mr. Moses Mbong said the former workers are facing untold hardship since they were relieved from their services and pleaded with ExxonMobil to pay the 1954 of the total ex-workers their entitlements.
Mr Mbong said they were surprised that after many years of their services to the oil firm they were not given their entitlements and urged relevant authorities to intervene on their behalf, lamenting that they have so far lost over 530 colleagues to death. total of the groups.
He recalled that several meetings with ExxonMobil in the past yielded positive result in which the company had accepted to pay them but wondered why the current delay by the oil firm on the payment, and narrated the hardship they are undergoing over the delay of their entitlements.
He said the former workers are peace loving people, hence their resort to peaceful demonstration on Thursday, 14th September, 2023 and vowed not to resort to any violent protest, but would continue to press on till their entitlements are being paid in full through bank cheque as agreed by the company with leaders of the workers.
Also speaking, the leader of Unified Catering Workforce, Mr. Samuel Ekpe, said they were suffering beyond expectation and asked ExxonMobil to do the needful.
He hinted that they had engaged the company for a long time now with a series of meetings for the purpose of the payment of their severance benefits of which ExxonMobil had agreed to pay.. He however lamented that despite their patience and peaceful disposition, the oil giant has not fulfilled its promise to effect the payment.
He said based on the aforesaid therefore, that they carried out the peaceful protest to press on their demand for the payment and urged the oil firm to without much delay pay them so as to avoid unforeseen circumstances that may arise on the delay of the payment.
Mr. Ekpe called on ExxonMobil to replicate to them what it did to others before them, and disclosed that the peaceful demonstration was necessitated by the non compliance by the oil firm to settle them as agreed to in their previous meetings, and also called on government, traditional rulers in the area, highly placed indigenes and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) to come to their rescue.
They all commended Committee for the Defence of Human Right (CDHR) and the press for standing by them, and also applauded the Area Commander of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in Eket, and other sister security agents for not allowing hoodlums to hijack the peaceful demonstration.
ExxonMobil did not respond to inquiry made to clear the air on the natter
The manager media and publicity of the company, Mr Ogechukwu Udeagha, who actually acknowledged the receipt on our inquiry, wrote back via e-mail: “Confirming the recipe of your inquiry. My colleague colleague will respond to you shortly..”
However, there was no such response at the time of filling this report, more than 48 hours after the request was made. END