ERA accuses NAOC of negligence 3 month after spill in Bayelsa community

THREE months after two oil spills were reported in Egbebiri community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State from the facilities of Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, has slammed the multinational for negligence.

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According to a field report by Mr. Alagoa Morris, Head of ERA Bayelsa Office, yesterday, a follow up visit by ERA/FoEN to the impacted sites recently revealed that cleanup had not been carried out on the environment, adding that the two spill incidents were officially recorded as equipment failure cases.

He said: “NAOC should take steps to clean up the oil spill-impacted environment around the company’s well, as crude oil is inimical to human and other terrestrial lives in the environment.

“Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment; National Oil Spill Detection and Res-ponse Agency, NOSDRA; Department of Petroleum Resource, DPR, and other relevant stakeholders should prevail on NOAC to do the needful.

“NAOC will not do anything unless the regulators prevail on them.

“NAOC should prevail on its contractor, Dautag, to ensure the engagement of refuse disposal contractors from the locality and for the refuse to be properly separated before disposal to avoid plastic pollution of farmlands.

“Community folks should continue to maintain peace, while they monitor their environment and draw the attention of relevant NGOs and government agencies to issues affecting them; including the oil companies operating in their environment.”

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