Niger Delta youths have staged a one-month strike protest against oil spills | Natural Issues
Lagos, Nigeria Residents of the Nembe region of Nigeria have taken to the streets of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, to take action against the spill of oil and gas at a leaky well that has been affecting locals for months. one.
Crude oil and natural gas have been rising in many nearby fishing grounds since early November, along the Nembe River and into the Santa Barbara River that flows through the Niger Delta before entering the Atlantic Ocean. The waves are said to have exacerbated the loss, in areas close to Rivers state.
Due to a leak on the OML 29 Well 1 platform – operated by Nigeria’s largest domestic oil company, Aiteo Eastern E&P, which acquired the Santa Barbara well from Royal Dutch Shell in 2015 – is still under investigation. The staff mentioned in the local survey did so he explained The incident as the biggest disaster for oil loss in the history of Nigerian oil companies.
“We want the world to hear our cries for help,” said Allen Jonah, secretary of the Nembe Se Congress, a development group that was in front of a youth-led protest Monday outside the Nigerian Union of Journalists’ press. in Yenagoa.
“People of all races should not just sit back and do anything to make sure that everything that happens is settled on its own.”
The Nigerian government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, has large sums of money in partnership with oil companies operating in the country and is responsible for day-to-day operations.
Since the 1970’s, the oil-rich Niger Delta region has been a major source of income for Nigeria, transforming it into a major oil-producing country in Africa.
But the region continues to suffer from years of environmental degradation, which has disrupted human life and denied access to basic services such as clean drinking water. The mangrove trees and wetlands in the area have become uninhabitable for many species and the life expectancy is less than 10 years in the Delta than in any other part of Nigeria.
According to the Nigerian Ministry of Environment, there have been nearly 5,000 cases of oil spills over the past six years. But the latest developments, which the protesters claim are more than 35 days old, have shocked those involved in the trade.
Deputy Minister of Environment Sharon Ikeazor likened the damage to World War II in Hiroshima, Japan and called for a review of the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency’s law to impose tougher sanctions on oil companies. During a visit to the area in late November, Governor Douye Diri compared what happened in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, which is known to be the biggest maritime oil crisis in history.
Aiteo says the cleaning work is underway.
In a statement issued on November 24, the company said it had sent two 1,000-ton ramps and other equipment to help drain.
Last month, Andrew Oru, Aiteo’s chief of security and community affairs, also he tells reporters that “the event did not result in too much oil in the environment as well as fuel that is easily available”.
He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture and that his confession had been obtained through torture.
But industry experts want an independent investigation and that the amount of loss is greater than what has been reported.
I am currently in Bayelsa and am amazed at the deterioration of the environment in Nembe.
AITEO oil spill has damaged the river. #Savebayelsa pic.twitter.com/jsK1ShYjWY
– $ Hydra đłď¸âđ (@TheBriDen) December 7, 2021
Alagoa Morris, who works in Yenagoa with the Environmental Rights Action & Friends of the Earth Nigeria, said the federal government, “which has a share of the deal”, has not been found and is urging other companies to take action. and help stop losses.
âThey [Aiteo] they have no power and this has led them to take over other organizations that have come to the site with their machines and have been fighting for the past four or five days but they have not stopped, âsaid Morris, who at the end of November led the group. a real-life search team to talk to local people as well as security officials in the area.
Another trip in preparation for the coming days, he added.
Meanwhile, protesters in Yenagoa urged Aiteo and the government to address the problem and reduce the impact on the lives of residents in the long run.
âWe are by nature fishermen [and] that river is our only escape; mangrove trees, most of the marine resources are what we eat, âsaid Jonah.
Al Jazeera contacted Aiteo to explain but did not respond by the time it was published.
