...Calls On NOSDRA for urgent intervention

Port Harcourt--A fresh oil spill has been reported in Ikata community, Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State with attendant massive destruction of crops in the surrounding environment.

The spill occurred in the early hours of yesterday, on a 14-inch pipeline right of way operated by Renaissance Africa Energy Company Ltd, RAEC.

RAEC is the company that is alleged to have recently acquired the assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, of Nigeria Ltd in a $2.4 billion divestment deal.

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The oil spill was confirmed by the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria, in a statement by its Executive Director, Dr. Fyneface Fyneface, obtained by Vanguard.

Fyneface said members of Advocacy Centre's One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in Niger Delta, as well as those under the auspices of its Crude Oil Spill Alert System, COSAS, in the area, reported the spillage to the centre.

He said the spill point, suspected to be "a third-party interference, is seriously spilling crude oil into the environment and destroying the ecosystem in the surrounding area."

The group said a visit by its volunteers in the area to the spill site showed that the vandals allegedly excavated the ground and vandalised the 14-inch pipe along the Okordia-Rumuekpe pipeline right of way, which is currently spewing crude oil into the environment.

Fyneface called on National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, to carry out a joint investigation visit (JIV) to the spill site with a view to determining the actual cause of the spill and invoke the relevant section of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, to hold the alleged perpetrators to account.

Several calls to the Police Public Relations Officer of the state police command, Grace Iringe-Koko, for confirmation of the incident, were not responded to.