Bayelsa community raises alarm over gas leak after dynamite explosion

Azikoro, a community in Yenagoa LGA, Bayelsa state has raised alarm over gas leak, after a dynamite explosion.

According to a live report by Arise TV, the facility, believed to be owned by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), started spewing gas on Monday night after the explosion.

Residents said they heard a loud bang on Monday night before gas started leaking from the pipeline.

According to AriseTV, the incident was said to have occurred in a bush, but the quantity of the spill is unknown.

The National Oil Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) confirmed the incident to TheCable.

Idris Musa, director-general, NOSDRA, said the leak was caused by an explosion after some yet-to-be-identified persons detonated a dynamite on the pipeline.

“It was an explosion. The leak was due to third party interference. Some people used dynamite on it,” he told TheCable.

“It is the act of vandalism that we keep talking about.”

Also speaking on the issue, Morris Alagoa, human rights field monitor, Friends of the Earth, said the incident was likely caused by third party interference.

He said there were “battery and wires laid towards the pipe meaning some explosives must have been detonated”.

Alagoa insisted that it was a “real third party interference whether it is out of grievance for one reason or the other, we do not know but it is unacceptable”.

“Another raging gas leak and as we speak, this has continued before dawn till now,” he told AriseTV. 

“As a matter of fact, the Environmental Rights Action (ERN) received several calls. Before I was mobilised down here, I reached out to the zonal director of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and as a matter of fact, he confirmed to me that he has also visited.  

“When we arrived there, we also saw the state’s ministry of environment officials, even though they refused to talk to the press but this is one too many.”