Sylvester Idowu in Warri
A Niger Delta-based Non- Governmental Organisation, the Center for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ), has called on the Director General of National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Mr.Idris Musa, to visit communities and creeks in the Niger-Delta region affected by oil spill.
CEPEJ, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Sheriff Mulade and made available to newsmen in Warri recently, noted that oil spill related environmental damages need urgent attention, adding that NOSDRA needed to be abreast with numerous oil spill in the region to enable it discharge the agency’s statutory obligations to the people.
“We see reasons to redirect the attention of NOSDRA to several explosions of oil and gas facilities, pipelines resulting to severe environmental and ecological damages.
“There are numerous sub-standard oil and gas transportation facilities that are often prone to leakage, spill and explosion and if NOSDRA makes it a priority to know the locations of such facilities they could give better response operations which includes detection, prevention and result oriented response,” it added.
The NGO drew the attention of NOSDRA to the preventable incident of 11 persons that allegedly died in 2016 from pipeline explosion at Agip’s oilfield in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, noting that it was necessary to call on NOSDRA to plan for a familiarisation visit to oil spills affected sites particularly in the creeks and interact with host communities across Niger Delta.
The CEPEJ further called on NOSDRA to correctly evaluate the volume of crude and gas that had been discharged into the surrounding environment arising from various explosions, leakages, equipment failures and third party interference.
“It is also important to inspect some pipelines that are due for remedial maintenance and proffer solution aimed at forestalling reoccurrence of preventable explosion and spills for the sake of the environment”, it stated.
