A fresh oil spill from the Trans Niger Pipeline, TNP, operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC, has rocked Bodo community in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Though the cause of the fresh spill is not yet known, this brings to four the number of leaks in Bodo community from the same facility in the last six weeks.
Recall that between August 2 and August 30 2022, three spill incidents in Bodo community, although Shell has maintained that there has been no activities on the TNP since June 2022 due to oil theft.
The fourth spill, which became noticeable on Monday, occurred at Patrick Waterfront, venue of the flag-off of Ogoni clean-up project on June 2, 2016by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Confirming the development, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria, lamented the incessant cases of oil spills from Shell facilities in Ogoniland and the Niger Delta region.
Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Mr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, regretted that the points where the previous spills occurred have not been clamped nor the environment remediated.
“He said: YEAC- Nigeria can confirm that a new oil spill has occurred in Bodo Community in Gokana LGA of Rivers State.
“This spill is being reported after there were previous spills on August 2nd, 24th and 30th, among others.
“The cause of this new spill is not yet known but the local people are reporting that it is caused by equipment failure like previous ones.
“Meanwhile, the previous spill points are yet to be clamped or cleaned up while compensations for each of the previous spills is also yet to be paid to community people for spill points already confirmed to have been caused by equipment failure.”