Ijaw Diaspora Council urges FG, COP 26 intervention to end ongoing oil well leak

Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa

The Ijaw Diaspora Council, (IDC) on Friday called on the Federal government and international community to halt ongoing oil leak at an oilfield at Nembe in Bayelsa.

It will be recalled that Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Exploration Company on Nov 5 reported a major leak from its Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 located in Nembe Bayelsa.

The oil firm had in a statement issued by its Spokesman, Mathew Ndianabasi described the incident as a massive one said that it was mobilizing local and international efforts to end the ongoing leak.

The group with headquarters in New Jersey, USA in a statement issued by Pastor Kenneth Tamara, Director of Public Relations, IDC advocated for immediate action before the global Climate Conference (COP26) rounds off in Glasgow.

The group advocated international emergency action on the massive explosion of accumulated gas and oil from a non-producing well within OML 29.

The IDC stated that Interim inquiries from petroleum experts indicate that the incident was caused by maximum pressure from piled-up gas in the well, which has witnessed several spills in previous years.

“As described by the operator of the unattended oil well, Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Ltd, parading global awards for corporate social responsibility.

“The magnitude of this incident is of an extremely high order.

“The indigenous peoples’ entire mangrove forest and marine environments are adversely affected by the same methane gas that world leaders have gathered in Scotland to cut emissions.

“What is happening now in Nembe is the opposite of whatever the Nigerian Government promised as its nationally determined contribution to global climate action.

“In a neighbouring oil field, coastal communities in Brass Local Government Area in Nigeria have also been ravaged for several weeks by gas spewing continually from another oil rig site named The Adriatic.

“There has been virtually no official action from the petroleum and environment ministries and agencies, as usual.

“For strange considerations, including conflicted and incestuous interests, Nigeria’s fossil industry regulators have routinely looked away as companies routinely gas and pollute hundreds of Ijaw, Ogoni, and other local communities in the Niger Delta.

“These disasters occurring during COP 26 are graphic examples of Nigeria’s insincerity and lack of capacity for climate security, environmental justice, and indigenous minorities’ protection.

“We can no longer allow this catastrophic environmental destruction to go on without a consolidated international response,” the statement read in part.

The group urged the Presidency, the United Nations and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and world leaders to take immediate action to cause the Government of Nigeria to stop the ongoing pollutions in Bayelsa in parallel with the COP26.

They further called on the international environmental rights and climate change movement to commence ecological remediation.

The interventions, they said, should include economic reparations and activate detailed investigations.

“The superintending Nigerian ministries and departments are too weak to act to determine and sanction defaulting operators.

“Their officers and the recalcitrant regulators have encouraged their repeated crimes of ecocide.

“Therefore, we demand that trusted international bodies lead the investigations, and commence ecological remediation and economic reparations.

“COP26 cannot be a success without global action to stop the current ecocide in Nembe, Nigeria,” the group stated.