Brave Dickson
The people of Ikiri Community in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State have expressed distress over the persistent spilling of suspected crude oil on their land.
The community which does not have crude oil pipe beneath or on the surface of the land, had in 2016 experienced a spill of what looked like crude oil which has occurred again.
Our correspondent reliably gathered that the people of the affected community are lamenting seriously, over the persistent spillage on their land which they said has been reoccurring.
An environmental expert, Ikechuku Ojoba who visited the spilled site told our correspondent that members of the affected community were seen in separate groupings, discussing their plight as they appeared helpless because of the spillage.
Also speaking to our correspondent, a leader of the community, Anthony Okirie of Umugbakri Kindred, whose house was affected by the suspected crude oil, had bitterly complained of how the incident had devastated his building, crops, fish pounds and other economic trees.
Okirie said, “the spill was first noticed in 2016 and has been an occurrence threat since then till date.
“My entire household and other residents within that axis of Umugbakri land are usually forced to relocate each time the spill occurs.”
In a chat with our correspondent, the Community Development Committee Chairman of Ikiri Community, Humpier Eze affirmed that the situation has caused serious concern to the entire Ikiri Community, adding that, “our farm lands, crops, aquatic bodies and fish species are badly affected.”
The CDC chairman further said that the community has made formal complaints to Total oil multinational operating in the LGA, but the company seemed not to accept the responsibility of cleaning up the spillage.
“We have also written to NORSDRA on this issue and just last week, we saw some personnel from Total, NORSDRA and the military in our community claiming that they came for Joint Investigation visit but up till now, nothing practical regarding remediation or cleanup of the area has been done,” he said.
