Lamentations as Bayelsa Oil Spill Commission visits ravaged sites

Protests, shock and lamentations trailed the visit of the newly-established Bayelsa State Commission of Inquiry on Environmental Degradation to some of the oil ravaged communities in the state.

Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu-led eight-member commission, which was inaugurated by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, last Wednesday, immediately commenced work with visits to Egbebiri and Ikarama communities in Yenagoa Local Government Area as well as Azuzuama community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.

The Commission also held evidence sessions with representatives of no fewer than 35 communities, traditional rulers, environmentalists and civil society organisations.

In Egbebiri, chairman of the Community Development Committee (CDC), Mr. Godspower Worikumo, told members of the Commission that the last spill caused by equipment failure occurred in the community in October 2018.

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He said the manifold operated by the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) spilled crude oil for about 11 days before it was identified by the oil company.

“Our river, ponds and farmlands were destroyed by the spillage, which lasted about 11 days before Agip responded. Since then, our community has suffered terrible devastation and our means of livelihood affected as a result of the spillage,” Worikumo said.

In this community, the Commission members expressed shock that an attempt to clean up the spills resulted in further pollution as they saw a pit of fire where crude excavated from the soil was being burnt and the smoke spreading all over the community.

“This is shocking and totally unacceptable,” Archbishop Sentamu lamented as he scooped raw crude from a pond with a plastic bucket.

It was also lamentations in Ikarama community as an Environmental Monitor for Amnesty International and youth president of the community, Comrade Warder Benjamin, informed the commission that it takes a minimum of 12 days for Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to respond to the several incidents of oil spills in the community.

“It takes the SPDC about 12 days to start evacuation of spills whenever it occurs, leaving the community to suffer the effects,” he said.

He explained that the youths were employed only on part-time basis as look-out personnel for oil spills and that when such incidents were reported to the facility owners, they always promised to remediate the polluted areas but to no avail.

In Azuzuama, placard-bearing youths protesting the devastating effects of oil spills and exploration in their community welcomed the delegation.

Some of the inscriptions on the placards read: “Our common sicknesses are cancer, kidney failure and difficult child-bearing,” “Crude oil is a curse rather than blessing,” and “Decades of oil spillage, no proper clean up.”

During the four-hour round trip by boat to and fro Azuzuama community, the delegation saw evidence of the devastation caused by spillages on the rivers and mangrove stilts, which had been blackened by crude seeping off oil facilities

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An environmentalist and Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom, King Bubaraye Dakolo, who spoke to journalists after attending the evidence session in Yenagoa, accused highly-placed personnel of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) of complicity in the sabotaging of oil facilities for their selfish and pecuniary interests.

His words: “No oil firm can accuse the youths of the Niger Delta before me because they are the cause of the violence we are experiencing in the Niger Delta. Prior to oil exploitation and exploration, the Niger Delta man lived in a pristine environment with tranquility.

“Time and time again, ocean liners and ships that have the capacity of picking up at once the entire crude oil that comes from Nigeria berth at the Gulf of Guinea. They anchor there and wait. They sponsor young men to go and bring crude from everywhere around.

“Sometimes the oil workers will open the valves and release crude to the barges in the night and these barges bring crude to the big ocean liners at the Gulf of Guinea. Ocean liners are not tiny drops; they are not canoes. They are boats that are so large that an entire kingdom can get into them. And then they collect sufficient crude that they take to Europe and America to sell. So, who is profiting? Is it the man that is sent to go and do some menial, dangerous job? Or it is the main man that sponsors all of these?

“You and I do not have the expertise to burst the pipes. For you to burst pipe, you must have the expertise. And where do you get expertise of that type if not in the oil industry? So, the sabotage that they accuse us of is caused by the oil industry. They are the experts.”