Another oil spill occurs in Ogoni land

Oil spill has reportedly occurred in Ebubu Community in Eleme Local Government Area (Ogoniland) of Rivers State.

A non-governmental organization known as Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) raised the alarm in Port Harcourt, yesterday.

Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, disclosed that the spill had been ongoing for the past three days and there was no sign of containing it soonest.

Fyneface said: “As part of Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre’s (YEAC-Nigeria) Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS), the organization wishes to alert members of its network, the authorities, the media and the general public that an oil spill has occurred in Ebubu community in Eleme.

The spill, according to the community sources, was suspected to have been caused by equipment failure, subject to Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) confirmation.

“The reports also claimed that some members of the community were allegedly working clandestinically and Nicodemusly to cover up the oil spill for Shell on whose facility it occurred in return for personal aggrandizement and gains,” Fyneface said.

The advocacy centre, which is a frontline youths and environmental organization that works with communities in the Niger Delta region to address environmental concerns, seeks ecological and environmental justice, adding that it  would release more details about the new oil spill in Ebubu Community (Ogoniland) as soon as possible.

“It would be recalled that Ebubu Community was in court with Shell for about 32 years till 2021 when the company paid about $111million (about N45.9billion) in compensation over an oil spill that occurred on the same Shell’s facility in the late 1960s during the Nigeria civil war that lasted between 1967-1970,” he said.

(SUN)