The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria has urged the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria to return to its oil spill-impacted sites at Ikarama in the Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State and carry out proper clean-up and remediation of the community’s environment.
This was contained in a field report released to journalists in Yenagoa on Wednesday following a visit by the environmental rights group’s field officers to the Ikarama environment on April 26, 2022.
Alagoa Morris, Head of ERA/FoEN Bayelsa, explained that the group visited after a new alarm was raised by the community about the fact that crude oil had stopped preparation of land for fish ponds.
It stated that the complaint was coming in from community residents eight months after a joint inspection by the National Oil Spill Detection Agency (Shell), ERA/FoEN and ERA/FoEN to an impacted area near the planned fish pond location on August 20, 2021, and a follow up joint inspection by the agency, the oil company and the organisation.
Benjamin Warder, the Youth President of Ikarama was quoted in the report as saying that his efforts to mobilise resources to prepare a fishpond on his family’s land at Ekperikiri swamp failed because crude oil poured from the ground and covered the whole area while the excavator was in action.
The organisation alleged that SPDC’s improper clean-up and non-remediation of oil spill impacted sites in the Ikarama environment was responsible for the fresh sight of unmitigated crude oil in the ground.
It expressed concern that NOSDRA had not taken action on this important matter within eight months.
The report further stated, “Shell should return to the Ikarama spill impacted sites and carry out clean-up and remediation without further delay.
“With the current evidence coming up on Tuesday (April 26), and the heavy presence of crude oil in the ground, it is only proper to call on NOSDRA to rise up to the occasion. Shell should be forced to return to the Ikarama oil-spill impacted areas and do proper remediation. The record shows that many spillage sites were set on fire and that very little, if any, cleanup was done.
“And this is why the ERA/FoEN had earlier demanded and is still demanding that Shell should embark on UNEP recommended clean-up/remediation even in Ikarama and other parts of Bayelsa State, including other states of the Niger Delta.
“The evidence of the negative impact could be seen on the plantain tree at the site of the heaped mud from the excavation of last year as they are stunted and cannot leave the ground,” it said.
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