Group Raises Alarm Over Oil Spill In Ogoni
From ERIC MOORE, Port Harcourt
The Eco Defence Alliance has expressed concerns about the oil spill that occurred in Bodo City in Gokana Local Government Area (Ogoni) of Rivers State.
Coordinator of the group, Damian Gbogbara, in a statement released in in Port Harcourt, decried incessant oil spill in Ogoni land and wondered why relevant authorities have failed to proffer permanent solution to mitigate the menace.
He said: “As a new oil spill has been reported again in Bodo City in Gokana Local Government Area (Ogoni) of Rivers State, months after many other multiple crude oil spills have occurred along the pipeline but at different location, among many others over the years.
“It wonders why the authorities have refused to proffer permanent solutions to the menace of crude oil spill in Bodo.
“This is not funny to hear that Bodo is a community with the highest number of crude oil spills that the world has ever recorded in human history.”
Gbogbara said, the latest spill occurred on Thursday, July 4, at about 12:45am in the Sugi area of Bodo community, not far from where multiple oil spills had occurred in recent times on the Trans-Niger Pipeline (TNP) operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) Limited.
According to Mrs. Monica, whose residential home is located very close to the spill site, as well as that of last year’s, “a loud blast was heard like that of last year’s (2023), at about 12:45am.
_Pentoks News_ gathered from community sources that the latest spill was allegedly caused by equipment failure.
The community-based environmental advocacy group said it has lost counts of oil spill incidents in Bodo.
The coordinator, however, warned that caution should be exercised by relevant authorities in the quest to find out the cause of the spill and subsequent closure of the leaked pipes to avoid any crisis in the community.
Gbogbara continued: “Again, there is the need for transparency in the whole process, from constituting the JIV team to its implementation and its final result to avoid any form of crisis as witnessed the other time.
“The JIV report will help to hold the companies to account and also serve as evidence-based documents for possible litigation on the ecosystem destruction, and save the fragile Bodo, Ogoniland, and Niger Delta environment, especially with the ongoing clean up exercise by the Bodo Mediation Initiative (BMI), beside the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) coordinated clean up gearing up to start in the area.
“Eco Defence Alliance, therefore, calls on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to immediately embark on a joint investigation visit (JIV) with Shell and other relevant stakeholders to the spill site in Sugi Area of Bodo City and not to delay like it has always been doing, and thereby refused to carry out JIV on the February 18, 2019, oil spill till date.”
Gbogbara said the JIV report is very important as it would help to determine the cause of the spill, the volume of the spill and the extent of damage to the environment and the ecosystem.
He warned against any attempt to manipulate the JIV process and its outcome.