By Obiabin Onukwugha
A civil society organisation, Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre’s (YEAC-Nigeria), has reported a fresh oil spill at a Shell manifold in Ogale community, Eleme local government area of Rivers State.
The oil spill, is said to have occurred on Monday, February 3, which coincided with President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the bill establishing a Federal University of Environmental Technology, Ogoni.
A statement by the body indicated that the oil spill was discovered by members of the YEAC-Nigeria “One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta”.
The volunteers also reported to YEAC-Nigeria that the manifold spill, after it filled the underground pits, started flowing freely to the pipeline right of way that separated Lot-1 of the ongoing Ogoni cleanup Project of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) in the area.
The Advocacy Centre, through its Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS), in a statement in Port Harcourt, signed by its Executive Director, Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, called on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to carry out a joint investigation visit (JIV) on the spill site, invoke sections of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021 and ensure that containment and clean-up are done with adequate compensation paid to those whose economic crops are impacted by the spill in the area.
“The volunteers said they suspected that the spill at the manifold owned and operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria, a company that the community has been in a United Kingdom High Court with till date over previous oil spill is caused by equipment (valve) failure while contactors were carrying out maintenance work on the facility today,” the statement read in part.
