Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — A fresh oil spill from the Shell-operated Trans Niger Pipeline, TNP, has rocked K-Dere community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, polluting the already devastated Ogoni environment.
The fresh oil spill, which has been oozing out of the ground like water and running into farmlands, became noticeable one week ago, according to the locals, and was only clamped by operatives of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited yesterday.
Although the cause of the spill is yet to be ascertained, the fresh spill in K-Dere community came at a time the Ogoni area has recorded multiple spills in the last few months.
Reacting to the latest development, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria, condemned the spill and called for the invocation of the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act on the spills in order to ensure adequate compensation for the community.
Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Mr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, advised oil companies to begin the total replacement of all pipelines laid in the Niger Delta since 1950s and, commence the process of transitioning to clean energy.
Fyneface urged the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, and other stakeholders to speedily carryout and conclude the Joint Investigation Visit to the spill point, in order to clean up the spills and remediate the environment.
He said: “This spill is one too many because it came at a time that other multiple spills have been reported in Bodo community and other parts of Ogoni where UNEP Report 2011 on Ogoniland is being implemented by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP).
“It is important that steps are taken to address this latest spill and it should start for an immediate movement of NOSDRA to the spill site with other stakeholders for Joint Investigation Visitn to formerly determine the cause of the spill which the people have blamed on equipment failure.”
With the incessant crude oil spills in Ogoniland, Rivers State and the Niger Delta region, Mr. Fyneface called on Shell, other oil companies and the federal government to take steps to reduce incidents of crude oil spills in the Ogoni area and other parts of the region.
“If spills are not prevented from happening by drastically reducing oil spill frequencies, it would further devastated the fragile and already heavily impacted Ogoni and Niger Delta environment including the sources of livelihoods for fishermen and farmers.”
Meanwhile, efforts to get a reaction from the management of Shell on the fresh oil spill have proved abortive, as enquiry sent to the company’s Media Relations Manager, Bola Essien-Nelson, was not replied.