Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Reactions have begun to trail the fire explosion which rocked a pipeline operated by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC in Obrikom, near Omoku in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Recall that fire explosion occurred on Agip’s Obiafor I and II pipelines in Obrikom on the 2023 Christmas eve, killing at least 20 persons and leaving many others with several degrees of burns.
The fire explosion came just two months after a similar explosion at an illegal refinery occurred on October 1st, 2023, in Ibaa community, Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, which left over 35 people dead, including two pregnant women.
Speaking on the incident, the Chairman of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, Mr. Vincent Job, accused security agencies in the area of complicity in the activities of oil theft and vandalism.
Job also blamed International Oil Companies operating in the area, saying that failure of the IOCs to provide jobs for the youths was responsible for the increasing cases of vandalism in the area.
He also called on the federal government and the IOCs to improve the lives of oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta region.
“We have the Nigerian Army and Civil Defence guarding these oil facilities but there is connivance because the security agents are condoning these acts, hence the vandals are going scot-free. Otherwise, I don’t see any reason why these youths will be going to vandalize oil facilities in the presence of security officers.
“ONELGA is the hub of oil and gas exploration in Nigeria, but we’re suffering from degradation of the ecosystem and polluted environment. I feel that there is nothing that will be given to ONELGA that will be too much from Rivers state and federal government. We need our youths to be employed.”
The ONELGA council boss also advised youths to desist from vandalizing oil installations, saying that the continued vandalization of oil pipelines was detrimental to the people and environment of ONELGA.
“We have advised our youths not to destroy or vandalized oil installations in and around ONELGA because our lives and the environment are threatened by such actions. Look the number of lives that have been lost from this incident alone.”
Similarly, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC Nigeria, has called on the youths in Rivers State and across the Niger Delta to stop all acts of pipeline vandalism, artisanal crude oil refineries and associated environmental pollution.
Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Mr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, also called on the federal government to provide alternative livelihood opportunities for artisanal refiners through the establishment of YEAC’s proposal called ‘Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative, PACORDI.’
“The solution is PACORDI for the modernization, standardization, legalization and integration of artisanal refineries into the national economy as well as the issuance of modular refineries licenses for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta as proposed by the federal government in 2017 to mitigate acts of crude oil theft, artisanal refineries and avoidable death of this nature among others.”
Meanwhile, the Egbema Voice of Freedom has ruled out sabotage in the Agip pipeline explosion in ONELGA, accusing the Italian oil firm of operating obsolete facilities installed since in the 1960s.
Leader of Egbema Voice of Freedom, Pastor Evaristus Nicholas, charged the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA to urgently carryout a joint investigation visit to the incident site to unravel the cause of the explosion.
