A fresh devastating oil spill has occurred around Ogboinbiri in the Apoi clan of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The people of the community had yet to recover from the impact of the May/June 2020 oil spill incident, which flooded their swamps and river, before the current one took place on Saturday, December 12.
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria reported community people as claiming that the oil spill occurred from Ogboinbiri Wellhead 7 operated by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company.
ERA/FoEN’s Project Director in Bayelsa State, Alagoa Morris, said the incident was reported to the organisation on Sunday.
He quoted a community person as saying, “l am currently reaching out to you from Ogboinbiri community. I think we currently have a situation that will interest you now. Just yesterday (Saturday), another spillage occurred in the community. It happened on a wellhead.
“The gushing (of crude oil) has stopped, but I just can’t tell when it started. I only met the situation when I was coming back from a function in a nearby village. I met the situation when the company was trying to remedy the situation. Even at that, as of today, the spread of the oil is felt everywhere on the river.”
Contacted via text message after he did not answer calls placed to his phone, the state Commissioner for Environment, Iselema Gbaranbiri, asked our correspondent where and when the oil spill occurred, which were sent to him.
But when asked what his response was, Gbaranbiri only replied, “Thank you so much” as of the time of filing this report.
