Oil Spill Occurs In Rivers Community

Barely two weeks after an oil spill was reported at Ogale community in Eleme local government area of Rivers State, a fresh oil spill has occurred at Ikata community in Ahoada-East local government area of the state.

The spill occurred in the early hours of Monday on a 14-inch pipeline right of way operated by an indigenous oil firm, Renaissance Africa Energy Company Ltd.

The firm acquired the assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd in a $2.4billion divestment deal.

The oil spill was confirmed by the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) in a statement ent in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, signed by its Executive Director, Dr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface.

Fyneface said members of Advocacy Centre’s One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta, as well as those under the auspices of its Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS) in the area, reported the spillage to the Centre.

He stated that the spill point, suspected to be tortious (third-party) interference, was seriously spilling crude oil into the environment and destroying the ecosystem in the surrounding area.

The group also stated that a visit by its volunteers in the area to the spill site on Monday morning showed that the vandals allegedly excavated the ground and vandalised the 14-inch pipe along the Okordia-Rumuekpe pipeline right of way which is currently spewing crude oil into the environment.

The group called on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to carry out a joint investigative visit (JIV) to the spill site with a view of determining the actual cause of the spill and invoke the relevant section of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, to hold the alleged perpetrators to account.