JUST-IN: Fresh Oil Spill Occurs In Rivers Community

Fresh crude oil spill has occurred in Bodo City, a community in Gokana local government area of Rivers State, following a leakage from the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) operated by a multi-national oil giant, Shell.

The current oil spill, which occured last Friday at the Sugi area of the community, but discovered by the locals on Sunday, was sixth to occur in the area in the past one year, all traceable to the same pipeline.

Recall that in August 2022 alone, five spills occured in the community, prompting a a non-governmental organisation, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) to declare that it would work with the community leadership and its people for Guinness World Records as the community with the highest number of crude oil spills in the world.

Reacting to the recent development, YEAC-Nigeria executive director, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, said information from the organisation’s volunteers indicated that the latest spill was allegedly caused by equipment failure.

Fyneface, who stated that the organisation has lost count of oil spill reports from Bodo city alone due to incessant occurrences, said their clamour for the spills in the community to be put on record was to seek Guinness World Record attention for the community.

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He said the record will also enable polluters to be globally named and shamed to serve as a deterrence to both indigenous and multinational oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region.

The YEAC-Nigeria boss stated that the records will further help to hold international oil companies (IOCs) to account on the nation’s ecosystem destruction and save the fragile Bodo, Ogoni, and Niger Delta communities, especially with the ongoing cleanup exercise by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP).

Fyneface called on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to immediately embark on a joint investigation visit (JIV) with Shell and other stakeholders to the spill site in Bodo City.

He advised NOSDRA not to delay the visit like it has refused to carry out JIV on the June 18, 2023 crude oil spill in Eteo Community of Eleme local government area of the State till date.