New crude oil spill has been reported in Bodo Community in Gokana Local Government Area (Ogoniland) of Rivers State.

The new spill suspected and alleged to have been caused by equipment failure according to community people who are also members of Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre’s (YEAC-Nigeria) “One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta” said to have been discovered on Sunday, October 16, 2022 by about 10AM in the water body around the Julius Berger construction site, the area where work is ongoing on the Bodo-Bonny Road.

Under the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre’s (YEAC-Nigeria) Oil Spill Alert System (OSAP) through verifiable reports from its Youth Volunteers Network field team, the organization reported no fewer than three(3) oil spills that occurred in Bodo Community alone in August 2022 and associated negative impacts of the spills on the environment, heath and livelihoods of the people who are predominantly farmers and whose sources of livelihoods have been destroyed by incessant oil spills.

YEAC-Nigeria condemns the spill-rain as well as the latest oil spill in Bodo Community when issues associated with previous spills are yet to be addressed.

Advocacy Centre reiterates its call for Shell and its joint venture partners to replace the obsolete Trans-Niger Delta pipeline in the Ogoni area which are overaged and now bursting and deflating like balloons and destroying the environment.

YEAC-Nigeria calls on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to immediately facilitate a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to the new spill site, determine the cause of the spill, ensure that adequate compensation is paid to the affected community and its people if found to have been caused by equipment failure as suspected, clamp the spill point and clean-up the polluted water and area immediately.

YEAC-Nigeria also called on the Federal Government and the joint venture partners to launch an independent investigation into the incessant oil spills in the Bodo community and the report used to stop further spills to avoid the extermination of the people over continuous poisoning of their environment and ecosystem.

FYNEFACE DUMNAMENE FYNEFACE,

Executive Director, YEAC-Nigeria.

17/10/2022