By Obiabin Onukwugha
Rivers State in South-South Nigeria is a major crude oil and gas producer.
Hosting major assets like the Trans Niger Pipeline, the NLNG, and the Bonny Oil Export Terminal where Nigeria’s crude is sold in the international market, and several oil and gas production assets, Rivers State has had its fair share of the environmental crisis arising from oil extractivism in the Niger Delta region.
In 2022, an air pollution referred to as black soot hit the state. The crisis was linked to massive environmental pollution arising from activities of illegal oil bunkering and the burning of ceased products by security agencies.
Other significant factors linked to the air pollution, included gas flaring by oil companies, and burning of tires, especially at night.
“I remember vividly when there was a trace of the sooth in the atmosphere. I personally went to see the former commissioner back then, Prof (Mrs) Roseline Konya, she assured me that her ministry, the Ministry of Environment, where she was the commissioner back then, would investigate and make sure that it didn’t spread,” said Ilanye Chapp-Jumbo, one of the campaigners against blacksoot in Rivers State, in an interview with NatureNews reporter.
“If the government back then had been proactive when some of us noticed it, we wouldn’t have had the magnitude of the impact that that situation caused to Rivers people,” she said, recalling, “A lot of businesses shut down, a lot of people left Rivers state, a lot of people came down with various kinds of diseases ranging from lungs diseases and all of that, so much so that the then administration told us that they are going to build cancer centers.”
Health Risks of Air pollution
According to the World Health organization (WHO), air pollution is a major environmental threat and one of the main cases of death among all risk factors, ranking just below hypertension, tobacco smoking and high glucose, saying that in 2012 alone, 11.6 percent of global deaths equivalent to 6.5 million deaths were outdoor air pollution-related.
Anothed air pollution health risk report by the WHO in 2023, estimated that, globally, air pollution is responsible for about 7 million premature deaths per year from ischemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer, and as well, acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia which mainly affects children in low and middle-income countries.
“We all know what transpired about two years ago. Talking about when the soots, popularly called the black soots, ravaged Rivers State.
“It was so bad that time so much so that some research was carried out and medically then, they told us that inhaling the soots, the residual effect would last for at least the next five years, or there about which would cause male children, I can’t remember precisely, an age bracket that time, may not be fertile because the carbon monoxide that was being inhaled back then would distort their reproductive system,” Chapp-Jumbo said.
“And we suffered that inhalation for close to one year or thereabout,” recalled further, observing, “Well, even if we have suffered it for two days, three days, four days, it is bad enough, so that it went into months, years, and when a lot of us rose up to call the government to order, and they started scampering.”
Security agencies role in the black soot
The military persistence in burning ceased theft products and alleged complicity, was also linked to the black soot
“They were the worst culprit. The military burning of this crude – they were worse than the young men who were refining it. It was more devastating. It was worse than the production of illegal refinery.
“There was also agitations that this burning of crude should stop. Why don’t you cease? If you must cease it, why don’t you leave it and dump it somewhere, in a government facility that it is can be recycled,” Chapp-Jumbo further stated.
The then Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, in a state-wide broadcast on January 1, 2022, also accused the security agencies of aiding, abetting and protecting illegal refineries in the state.
He said the soot in Port Harcourt and its environs was caused by illegal refineries in the state, aided by the federal government and security agencies.
“Unfortunately the federal government has remained inexplicably silent over our request and even complicit to a large extent with the security agencies actively aiding, encouraging and protecting the artisanal refiners to continue with their harmful activities unabated”, Wike stated.
Reports on illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta region
“The soot has reduced but that does not mean that the production of this crude is no longer carried out in Rivers State. I am from the riverine area. Some times when I travel, I see them, you know, with jerry cans and all of that, paddling into the creeks to refine this crude,” Chapp-Jumbo noted.
The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, through its Oil Spill Monitor, said it recorded 589 oil spills in 2024, with oil theft accounting for 95% of all oil spill cases, a significant increase from previous years.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), in its 2024 report released in August 2025, stated that sabotage was the leading cause of spillages in the Niger Delta.
It said our of the 732 cases of oil spills, 485 incidents were attributed to sabotage, representing approximately 66.2 per cent of all reported spills.
Also, the 6 Division Nigerian Army, it’s troops through its Anti-Crude Oil Theft (COT) between 11 and 24 August 2025, confiscates over 32,000 litres stolen crude and arrested dozens across the Niger Delta region.
The Nigerian Navy also reported in August that its operatives deactivated 71 Illegal Refining Sites (IRS) and seized over 400,000 litres of stolen crude oil across the region.
Call for modular refineries
Chapp-Jumbo, expressed fears that the soot may resurface if there are no sustainable measures to address the source of air pollution, especially illegal bunkering. She called for the licensing and establishment of modular refineries as solution to the black soot.
“Let’s not deceive ourselves. Some of these product that are being refined by our boys, is what people are using for kerosene today because they are cheaper and they are competitive. They can compete with the one that is refined in our refineries,” she said.
Chapp-Jumbo continued: “I know that during the previous federal government administration, there was supposed to be a committee that was headed by the Deputy Governor back then. She was the chairman of that committee where they called for our young men who are into the illegal refining of this product. They wanted to have stakeholders meeting. I think that meeting held just once and after that time we never saw or heard that that meeting held again.
“It can never be over emphasized that we need modular refineries, because yes, the soot has reduced but that does not mean that the production of this crude is no longer carried out in Rivers State. These men who are good at refining this product can be gainfully employed if they are made to partner with the government and to ensure that this modular refineries are effectively utilized.”
It has been observed that loss biodiversity is beginning to regenerate with insects that hitherto went extinct resurfacing within Port Harcourt environment.
“The appearance of butterflies in Port Harcourt is an indication that the environment is recovering from the black soot,” said Samuel Uwakwe, a resident of Port Harcourt in a chat with our reporter.
