Special Investigation: How Failed N1.6 Bn Erosion Project Pushes Obogoro Community In Bayelsa To The Ocean

By Obiabin Onukwugha

Obogoro Community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State boast of people who have abandoned their homes and become tenants elsewhere. Those who failed to flee on time have lost their lives to ocean surge.

Located less than thirty minutes drive from the Government House in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State’s capital city, Obogoro community, also spelt Ogbogoro, has lost substantial part of its land to ferocious coastal erosion.

NatureNews gathered that over five hundred plots of lands, houses, a school, youth corp members’ lodge, and no fewer than six lives have been lost till date.

The people’s expectations were heightened in 2021, when Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri announced the award of a shore protection contract to save the people and salvage the Obogoro community. Three years later, the project has remained unexecuted and the community is faced with the threat of a surging coastal erosion that has changed the course of the Ikoli River, a tributary of the River Nun, for over a decade.

 

By its geographical location, Bayelsa State sits below the sea level. Hence, most of the state’s coastal communities face the threat of extinction from ravaging erosion. Obogoro is one of such communities.

Last year, the Diri-led government claimed that it had spent N750 million since it awarded the contract to Nigergreen Dredging International Limited, an indigenous dredging company.

Information obtained from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) website indicates that Nigergreen Dredging International Limited was incorporated on January 7, 2020.

With its head office at House 3, No 29, Ekukinam Street, Utako, Abuja and branches in Warri and Port Harcourt, the company’s three principal promoters were listed as Chukubuikem Francis Onyekachukwu, Chukwubuikem Uchechukwu Francis, and Chukwubuikem Philemon Tochukwu.

When NatureNews visited the Ogbogoro community and the project site, there were no signs of any substantial work being done to justify the amount allegedly spent already.

NatureNews observed that houses along the shore were deserted as residents had fled for their lives. It was also noted that piles of sand had been dredged, but the project seems to have been abandoned as the dredging pipes at the site were seen swallowed by overgrown weeds. Also, there were no staff of the contractors on site when the reporter visited.

In the middle of the river is a stationery private-owned keke dredger, used in dredging part of the sand dugged-up by the erosion from the community and for changing the course of the Ikoli river.

 

On March 15, the first day of the visit, the journey was stalled as the investigation team almost had an accident. The local tour guide, a victim of the coastal erosion who now pays N250,000 rent for a room self-contained apartment, nearly had a head-on collision with a bullion van convoy that was running against traffic on the narrow road by the foot of a bridge within the city. The investigative crew escaped narrowly. After fixing our car, the day was spent, and we were not lucky enough to get someone to speak as it was getting dark.

When we visited the next day, we met the immediate-past Secretary of the Community Development Committee (CDC), Chief Richard Somukime, who also disclosed he had abandoned his building project that was then nearing completion.

Chief Somukime, who said he always visited the area to monitor the situation, told NatureNews the erosion has rendered so many people homeless.

He narrated how a young woman, named Blessing, died two years ago as her apartment suddenly collapsed into the river in the daytime.

He said: “I am one of the victims of this coastal erosion which has continued to devastate our community, destroyed many buildings and rendered thousands of people homeless. We are crying, but the government has been insensitive to our plights. But we are still begging that the government should come and commence the canalisation project.

“I have an ongoing building project here, but because of the speed of the erosion, I have abandoned the building, and I am renting an apartment to live. Life has been so difficult because I am not a salary earner. Even to pay my rent is a thug of war. For over a year now, I have not been able to renew my rent.

He also alleged that “the little heap of sand by the shore is just one trip of lorry supplied by a keke dredger”.

On whether the government has provided relief materials, he said, “Government is just playing with the intelligence of the Ogbogoro people. We have cried, and they kept promising, and they don’t keep to their promise.

“There was a time the government sent the commissioner for environment to come and take statistics of the people that they want to relocate people whose houses were close to the shore but till date nothing has happened. They diverted the funds and the relief materials. We don’t know where they took the relief materials to. Not even a dime has been given to Ogbogoro people.

“The day the governor awarded the contract, all of us were celebrating thinking that the government was ready to help the Ogbogoro people from this predicament. But it is to no avail. We hear commencement of canalisation, but for over three years, nothing has happened. This sand you see here is what has been done for three years since the project was awarded. Only one keke dredger of sand is what you see here.”

 

The former CDC Secretary reasoned that the project has been stalled because they don’t have people in government. He corroborated with previous information gathered from sources within the community, alleging that about N1.6 billion has already been released by the government with no commensurate work on it.

“The former Commissioner for Environment is playing with the intelligence of the Epie-Atisa people. I believe if this were to be Egbedi his community, the government and the commissioner would have taken an urgent action, but whether because we are in minority I don’t know.

“As I am talking to you over five hundred buildings have been washed away into the ocean in the past three years alone, to the extent that a building collapsed with a woman named Blessing inside, washed into the river and till today we didn’t see her body and we are crying to the government, pleading with them to come and help us out and they are playing over this project, a project of N1.6 billion but nothing to write home about. So, the project is not ongoing.”

 

He pointed out that all the government needed to do was to reopen the closed original course of the Ikoli river and dredge the sand back to the community.

When interviewed, another victim, Lady Eunice Nnachi, lamented the hardship she has suffered since two years that she abandoned her home to live in a rented apartment.

“The fact is that I ran away two years ago from this environment because it is no longer conducive, and it’s not safe because of erosion surge. The worst part is that these past two years, the government has been promising.

“Those executing the project will come, work for two or three days, and they will leave. It is either they give the excuse of our pipe is bad” or you will hear money has finished. So we don’t understand what they are saying that “money has finished.” Which money, and what is going on?

“And for some time now, it has not been easy for me. I had a garden where I farm vegetables here. If you go to the back you will see that I sunk a borehole that supplies me potable water but where I am now, I buy a truck of water, what we call “aboki water” for N1,200 every four days and the water is not good for drinking. So life has been very difficult for me,” she lamented.

Nnachi said there were over one hundred plots of land in front of her building as at the time she purchased the land. She stated that she deprived herself of luxury to build herself a two-bedroom apartment and another two self-contained apartments for rentage only to abandon it a few years later because of coastal erosion.

She further stated: “As at the time I came to buy this land, there were more than one hundred plots of land in front of me. I didn’t notice that erosion was eating up the area, but right now, my building is not up to half a plot from the shore.

“Somebody told me when I was building my house that in the next five years, we will not stay here again. I thought he was joking because that time I went to the waterside and I saw trees falling but I didn’t know that it would get to affect houses. And exactly five years I ran away from here.

“Life has not been easy, and I am calling on the government to mobilize the dredgers. Let them come back and finish the work. They said they wanted to reclaim the land before they started the piling. The Governor should also visit here to see for himself what is happening so that he will know whether the monies that have been released are commensurate with the work done.

“This is almost the end of March, and in the next two months, when the rains will come down heavy, everywhere will start falling apart. Where I am is a one-room self-contained apartment, and I pay N250,000 rent per year, and it has not been easy for me.”

 

Our next port of call was to Morris Alagoa, a frontline environmentalist and former Technical Adviser to the Bayelsa State Government on Environment. Alagoa just came back from the field as part of his environmental activism but had to speak with our reporter because of the import of the information we seek.

He only spent a few months in government, but Alagoa also corroborated most of the information shared by those interviewed earlier.

Alagoa, who is the Programme Manager, Environmental Rights Action, ERA Niger Delta Resource Center, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, said the erosion has caused a lot of damage to the community and if something urgent is not done the community will be swallowed up in the near future.

Alagoa said: “If you say I was in Government between August last year (2023) and February 14 this year you will not be doing enough justice to me, especially as one who was technical adviser, to the governor.

“However, the Ogbogoro issue is well known. Initially, it used to be the Famgbe community within that area. Famgbe community used to be hit seriously, but right now, since 2018, when my colleague and I visited the community till now, quite a lot of damage has been done to Ogbogoro Community.

“The shape the Ikoli river has taken, the Ikoli river is a tributary of the Nun River. The shape it has taken from that Famgbe side to Ogbogoro now. Ogbogoro is now the main hit. It has left Famgbe somehow. Even though it has consumed a lot of Famgbe land, it is now hitting Ogbogoro very seriously.

“In fact within a year, in 2019 when we visited Ogbogoro Community, we also spoke to the king of Atisa people, King Igodo who is also from that community and he expressed the feeling that the community was being marginalised because they didn’t have people in government that is why they are suffering ecological disasters without any help.

“We saw a complete school field in 2018, but by the time we went back in 2019, the school field was no longer there. The entire school field has been wiped out, washed into the river. So we term Ogbogoro as one of the fastest, if not the fastest, eroding community in Bayelsa State. A very violent erosion is eating up the community, and the people are very much worried, having lost their roads, corpers lodge, school field, and several houses.

“So it is a very serious matter and we were told that the Ikoli river changed its course; instead of directly opposite the community where the river used to traverse straight, now it has taken a C-shape around Famgbe to Ogbogoro. And except something drastic is done. Ogbogoro Community will be wiped out in the near future.”

 

The Environmentalist stated that they had written severally to the past administration in the state recommending the setting up of an erosion control commission in the state so as to enable the government tackle the menace but to no avail.

He said the people have written to the Bayelsa State government. “We sent them our report, my colleague submitted; one at the government house through the office of the commissioner for environment, that was in 2018 and we did recommended then that the state government should establish a flood and erosion commission, a full-fledged commission to take on the issue of flood and erosion, because Bayelsa State is the most Deltaic in the Niger Delta.

Explaining why the situation in the neighbouring states could be better, he said, you go to Delta State as you are moving towards Asaba from Ugheli, you will see a hilly environment.” If you go to Rivers State, you will see a hilly environment. Go to the oil mill environment, its hilly, even as you are approaching Emohua, you will see the hilly nature.

“You see burrow pits in Rivers State that even tippers will go down to take laterite and come out, but in Bayelsa State there is no such land where any tipper can go down because as you dig few feet, is water. So Bayelsa has a typical deltaic terrain, and we have to be at the forefront of dealing with issues of flood and erosion. That is why the Environmental Rights Action actually recommended to the Bayelsa State government to establish a full-fledged flood and erosion control commission.

“Not only did we send that, I also sent a public write up to the former Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Tonye Isina, highlighting these points on the need for flood and erosion commission in this state. But do you know that all of that has gone into voice mail.

He alleged that despite writing officially to the government, he did not “receive any call from the Seriake Dickson-led administration to say Morris we’ve received your letter officially or the ministry of environment; either the director of flood and erosion control or commissioner for environment inviting us to say we have seen your letter.

“But however, it became very obvious that the community has continued to be washed off. And graciously the government stepped in at a time with a view to solving the problem, especially to redirect flow of the water and also to reclaim part of the land that has been lost but it appears may be due to the contractual design and all of that, the contract has been over-delayed.

“I saw a new canal being constructed from the Nun River straight, as if it will now join the Ikoli river and move southwards directly towards the atlantic, but that wouldn’t solve the problem. The problem solving is, if at all, they will go to the original course of the river across the community and do piling, substantially into the river and reclaim the lost land. But experts may have advised, and they are trying to solve that problem, either to go back to get the original course to abandon the one they have already done or thereabouts.”

 

Alagoa stated that as a state below sea level, most communities in Bayelsa State were also suffering ocean surges and coastal erosion. He highlighted the need for federal government agencies such as the Ecological Fund, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry to partner with the Bayelsa State government to carry out shore protection, embankment and canalisation projects in all the coastal.

Information obtained from the Ecological Fund website by NatureNews showed that only the Alebiri community in Bayelsa State has an ongoing shoreline protection project with 45 per cent completion, awarded since 2017. Also available data showed that the Bayelsa State government had the lowest allocation of N975.2 million from the Ecological Fund in 2022.

Alagoa noted with dismay how the NDDC has abandoned some of such projects in the state, while others only exist on papers.

He continued: “Talking about coastal erosion or river bank erosion, Bayelsa State is very typical of having these issues. As we speak now, even yesterday, somebody called me from Canaan. You may not know that there is a community in Sagbama local government, an Isoko community called Canaan. They have also been suffering very serious river bank erosion, very serious now for the past two years.

We also have another one called Anibeze, which is also an Isoko community in Sagbama local government. That one started since the time of OMPADEC. They started calling for help since the time of OMPADEC to NDDC, up till now, no help has come to the community, and the community has lost roads, generator houses, schools, and several properties.

“When we went there some years ago to Anibeze a certain man who left the community several years, they said he returned from the north and when he saw his own house going into the river, he went into coma and died.

He noted that the only communities where the state government might be trying to work on, aside from Ogbogoro, is Odi. They did something in Odi. Even though we are saying the NDDC or the Niger Delta Affairs Ministry, the Ecological Fund should come in, because what was done in Odi is just a temporary job, a block wall to prevent flood from coming in to the community.

“So, we expect that these interventionist agencies of the federal government, whether it is NDDC, Niger Delta Affairs Ministry, Ecological Fund, they need to come and collaborate with the state government and even other international development partners to deal with these twin issues of ecology and environment which cause erosion and flooding. You go to Odi, it is also being threatened. That place also needs piling and reclamation of land,” he said.

 

Giving an indication that coastal erosion is a pervassive challenge in Bayelsa State, he explained: “You go to Kiama. The northern part of Kiama is also being threatened now. The shape of the river nun is almost what is happening in Kiama, and if nothing is done in Northern Kiama, that place will also suffer severe damage in the very few years to come. So the issue is very serious.

“If you go to Abobiri in Ogbia local government area, you go to Ayama-Ogbia, these are all communities that are seriously impacted by river bank erosion and of a truth, only state government cannot shoulder it because it is capital intensive.

Citing an instance of effective remediation, he said: we have one community in Ogbia local government, and they have done a very good job there, and the fund came from ecological fund; a very good shoreline protection.

Yet he insisted that coastal communities in the Niger Delta are suffering very severely. Odioma is a community in Brass local government. Their own is worse because behind them is a river, in front is the Atlantic ocean. So it is eating from the Atlantic Ocean, and they can not develop inward because the next is another river.

“Odioma, in the past few days, has witnessed a devastating ocean surge with water coming into the community apart from the fact that several houses have been washed into the river. But the good thing about Odioma is that before the last governorship election the governor was there, luckily the governor promised them that the government will do something about it and I heard, in this year’s budget, provision was made to st least start something for the Odioma people. But then I know that those are very elephantine projects that only the state government can not be able to handle.

“Sangana also in Brass local government area, few days ago, was in the news because videos from the community came, very alarming where even the abandoned NDDC project in the community, where concrete columns have been sunk into the ground and still taller than me, that we thought will be shoreline protection, in the video I saw where the waves were going over those columns. That is a very severe case, ocean surge, and the people are also crying out long ago for shoreline protection.

“Now, the federal government can not just be interested in taking the resources from these areas. Odioma is also an oil rich area, Sangana, and the communities in Akasa Kingdom in Brass local government. They have other communities like Opu-Okombiri, Minibie, and all of them that are also affected by this issue. They have crude that Conoil is taking, Chevron and all of them, they are there collecting offshore, you see the gas flare. So, the federal government can not just be taking the resources of the people, and they deny the people of such protection. There is no community in the whole world that can single-handedly take care of erosion issues.

“You go to Ogbia, Abobiri, the last time we visited, we saw life where people were going to get chikoko, it is a type of hardened soil from mangrove area. They’re going to cut them in different sizes and come to a wooden wall and then heap them by the side to prevent erosion. That is self-help. But Abobiri also needs shoreline protection. There are several communities like that in Bayelsa State.

“Unfortunately, the communities where NDDC had also awarded shoreline protection, none of them has been completed. You go to Nembe Bassambiri, it’s done not even up to half, but the work is done. You go to Ogbolomabiri, not up to half, the concrete columns are there, heaped at the waterside, abandoned. You go to Olugbobiri in Southern Ijaw local government area, you know these contractors, one person will get and sell to another person. Olugbobiri is supposed to have shoreline protection and land reclamation, but if you go there, there is no sign. Not many community people will be able to tell you that there is a project like that, yet I have documents to show the NDDC has been releasing certain amounts of money for all these projects yearly.

“You go to Opume in Ogbia local government, it is there in the books of NDDC that shoreline protection contract is awarded and they are paying certain money, but that is a complete ghost contract, because neither the CDC, youth leadership or the chiefs, was aware that the community has such thing. They tell you, “Go look the waterside now whether anything dey like that.” We no know as you dey come to tell is now na him we dey hear o”. These are all things that are there.

“So I will plead that the state government should also have an office that will liaise effectively with federal government interventionist agencies and other development partners to deal with the issues of flood river bank coastal erosion in Bayelsa State. Several communities are suffering, the Ogbogoro case is a very severe one but I have taken time to mention some few because the issue is a very wide one and several communities are suffering from it,” he stated.

NatureNews made frantic efforts to obtain the reactions of the Bayelsa State government. The Governor, Duoye Diri, was yet to constitute his new Executive Council after being sworn-in for second term in office.

When contacted, the Permanent Secretary of Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment declined to comment on the premise that he was newly posted to the ministry and did not have details of the N1.6 billion erosion control project.

This report was supported by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ)