Bayelsa community cries for help as oil spill pollutes farmlands, water

• Our people need drugs, water, food, others – Community head

“The way this oil spill is suffering us; you all know our means of livelihood is fishing and farming. This oil spill has affected our farms and farmlands; anywhere you go, it is the same thing; crops in farms have been negatively affected,” said Madam Gradeone Nikki,

Madam Nikki is from Ogboinbiri community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, where an oil spill recently occurred.

Nikki, who spoke in Ijaw language, said: “Cassava, cocoyam, plantain are all dying. As a result it is posing a great challenge to feed our children. Apart from crops affected; our fishing nets and traps have all been soiled by crude oil. We cannot drink the river water due to the crude oil; even to bathe our children is a problem now.”

She lamented that as an elderly woman, when she used the water, it seriously causes itching on her body, adding, “As I am here talking to you, my body is itching because of crude oil on the water. We are the closest community to Ogboinbiri and suffering the negative impact; without any benefits.

“Some of the children in the community are fatherless; and we are struggling to take care of them from by fishing and farming. Is this how we are going to continue?” She lamented, while calling on the authorities and the oil companies to stop the spill, carry out cleanup and do the needful with the community to assuage the suffering as the way forward.

Madam Nikki is not the only one who feels the pain of the spill, as the people of Ogboinbiri community, have been forced to drink from the polluted stream and live in degraded environment due to the over three months oil spill from an oil installation in the area.

Also, for over four months, farmers in the areas have had their businesses nosedive over pollution of farm lands, as crops and other arable farm produce are in decline.

The spill has been attributed to an alleged untamed leak from the facility operated by Oando PLC in the community.

The current spill, which is the 4th in three months, showed an excavated spill point exposing the ruptured section of the Ogboinbiri/Tebidaba pipeline operated by indigenous company Oando which inherited the facility from Italian multinational outfit, Agip.

Residents of the community told Daily Trust that water, farmlands, fishing gears, swamps, crops and the environment generally have been polluted, without any option for them to get alternatives for cleaner sources of drinking water.

It was gathered that the oil leak was first noticed in the community on September 5, 2024, with two incidents happening on October 4, with the latest noticed on November 15.

It was also learnt that the spill, which has spread for about a week now, has impacted adversely on the Apoi Creek and swathes of marshland and farmlands of Apoi clan in Southern Ijaw with communities such as Keme-Ebiama, Kokologbeni, Gbaraun, Apoi affected and also as far as Ukubie.

A native of Ogboinbiri community, Mr Bosin Izonakpo, noted that the spill is another case of equipment failure which has continued to result in pollution, and called for the cleanup and remediation of the environment

Another local, Mr Esinkumor Richard, appealed to government and the regulatory agency to compel the company to urgently mobilize to site and replace all ageing pipelines to avert reoccurrence.

The Chairman, Council of Chiefs of Keme-Ebiama community, Chief Newstyle Ogiori, said with the pollution of the water bodies in the area, their source of water and other means of livelihood had been affected.

“Crude oil is flowing through my paternal community, Ukubie, in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area. Anyone can see the thickness, and it is destroying aquatic lives and our means of livelihood. We don’t have portable water in this community,” he said.

“Some people drink from our polluted river, and our livelihood as fisher folks is from this river. The crude has been flowing for days like that. It is clear that it is an oil spill. We heard it is from an oil facility in Ogboinbiri.”

While noting that all the communities are affected by the spill, he said as Ijaw people, “We use the water for many purposes, drinking, bathing, and other things. As a result of the spill, we cannot use it for anything. We cannot use it to cook. If not for the rain that is falling these days, we couldn’t have had water to cook or even to bathe; because the water is completely contaminated.”

“Our farmlands are greatly affected too, aided by the current flood. So, going round the bush, one will see that all the areas that the water has overflown, crops are affected. These include plantain, cassava and other crops that we plant. So that is the effect we are facing now.

He, however, called on the oil companies to help them as this is not the first time it is happening and that the company had always ignored them and that no relief material was given.

“We are appealing to the government, to the oil companies and other well-meaning citizens to please come and help us salvage this situation. We need water now that we can use; not this crude oil-contaminated river water. They should send us relief materials,” he said.

The Amananaowei of Ogboinbiri community, the Ogboin XII, Okosughe Benson Eseimokumo, confirmed that the spill incident has been reoccurring in the community without any effort to clean it by the operators of the oil company.

“So, for me it is a sad one for our people because our people depend on the swamp for fishing, the crude has been taken into the swamp and farms. As at when I got there, the swamp where our ponds are and our rivulets have been flooded with the crude. That is to say next year there will be no fish for all the owners of ponds in that area.”

He said if proper remediation is not done, for the next 15 years; those ponds cannot have fish and the farmlands, because of the water rise, crude oil has also entered them. So, crops have started dying.

“Even after the last flooding, the pollution continues because it seeps into the water bed. That’s the sad side of it. What our people need now are relief materials such as drugs, water, food, fish and daily household equipment.

“The river remains the only source of our drinking water. And now the same river is polluted with crude oil. Those of us that have background in petroleum engineering, we know the effect of drinking such polluted water. You are exposed to cancer and all manner of diseases. When crude oil content is in your farm, you know what it does to the farm. And that’s the situation we are in.”

Eseimokumo also said: “Mothers were here crying and a lot has happened. I actually consider it as environmental terrorism on my people. It has been like that because there is no proper enforcement of environmental laws.

“I think that is just the problem. I can only speak for my people whose mandate I have. I agree that other communities are affected but I cannot speak for them; though there is need for collaboration in that regard.”

An environment advocacy group, Eden Alerts, said following the report from the community on 20 November, its team in Yenagoa led by Nimiemi Morris and Alagoa Morris mobilised and visited the affected area on November 21, 2024, and was led to the site by community guides.

The Media Manager in Eden Alerts, Mr Elvira Jordan, in a statement, said: “Even if you farm, the yields are not encouraging; very poor harvest. When you come for fishing during the flood, the catch would be poor because crude oil has chased away the fishes from the environment. And this has affected the local economy and livelihoods of the indigenes of the community.  So, everything possible should be done to clean up the impacted environment and pay damages.’’

The Executive Director of EDEN, Chima Williams, called on Oando to take immediate and adequate steps to clean up the present spill site and all previously impacted environments, and to replace the aged oil pipes within the environment, to put an end to the monthly oil spills and further environmental degradation.

Williams also called on government regulatory bodies at the federal and state levels to do the needful; ensuring proper cleanup/remediation and replacement of aged pipelines. He charged the people of Ogboinbiri community to continue to remain vigilant in terms of monitoring their environment, peacefully and legally demand for environmental justice from Oando and the federal government.

The Deputy Executive Director of the Environmental Defenders Network, Chief Alagoa Morris, who visited the spill site for on the spot assessment called on other multinationals to put an end to frequent oil spills by replacing ageing pipelines and other infrastructure.

When contacted, an official in the Port Harcourt office of the Oando PLC, who declined to be named demanded for official correspondence from Ogboinbiri community to the company, before he could direct the reporter to the personnel that will respond to the inquiry.

Also, the spokesman of Eni, parent body of Agip company, said Eni has since completed the sale of its onshore assets to Oando, who now managed the assets.