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.
In the report signed by the Head of ERA/FoEN office in Bayelsa, Alagoa Morris, the group explained that the visit followed a fresh alarm raised by the community that the heavy presence of crude oil in the ground stopped the preparation of land for fish pond.
It said the complaint was coming from the community residents eight months after a joint visit by the National Oil Spill Detection Agency, Shell and ERA/FoEN to an impacted site near the location of the planned fish pond on August 20, 2021 and a follow-up joint visit by the agency, the oil firm and the organisation.
The report quoted one of the immediate past Youth President of Ikarama, Benjamin Warder, who said his efforts in mobilising resources to prepare a fish pond in his family land at the Ekperikiri swamp had been rendered futile as crude oil came out from the ground and covered the entire space while the excavator was working.
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 said it was disturbing that NOSDRA had not acted on this important matter after 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 prevailed upon to return to the Ikarama oil spill impacted environments and carry out proper remediation as record shows that most spill sites in the community environment were set ablaze and very little or no clean-up 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.
