Oil spills: Activists call for ‘immediate’ clean-up in Bayelsa community

Environment Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) have called for an end to oil spills in Tein community, Biseni, Yenagoa LGA of Bayelsa.

The group alleged that oil fields owned by the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) are responsible for the spills.

Alagoa Morris, the group’s head of field operations, lamented that several spills which occurred within the Biseni Asamabiri cluster are yet to be remediated.

The spills are said to be linked to a 14-inch pipeline which evacuates crude to the NAOC facility at Obiobio.

The environmental rights group said NOAC acted independently and that statutory agencies such as the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and the ministry of environment were not invited to witness the fixing of the pipeline.

The group noted that Tein, which is predominantly a community of fishermen and farmers, has been adversely impacted by oil spills over the years.

“We want to join voices with the people that Agip should do the needful by ensuring that the environment, polluted by their crude oil, is properly cleaned up,” the group said in its report.

“Immediate remediation should be carried out and that is what we are demanding, a sustainable environment for our people, that is what we need.”

David Obuma, a community leader, said the oil companies operating in the area do not respond to reports of spills.

“When we report any spillage they will say it is sabotage, does it mean that the oil cannot be cleaned. They always term any oil spill `sabotage` meaning somebody must have burst the pipe. Who is the person without a name? We are worried,” he said

“Last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, around March, there was a spillage in the 14-inch pipe, beginning from the cluster to Obiobio in Ahoada.  Before the people realised what was happening, they (Agip) came with excavators, without even letting the chiefs know that such a thing has happened.”

Obuma said the oil spills are putting the next generation at risk.

“Our concern is if the environment is polluted it is not a matter that concerns only the present generation, the generation yet unborn will suffer the effects of the pollution,’’ he said.

TheCable had earlier reported that Mohammad Abubakar, minister of environment, says Nigeria recorded 4,919 oil spills between 2015 and March 2021.