Nembe spill: Ijaw Diaspora council seeks intervention of Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster Mgt

Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa

The Ijàw Diaspora Congress (IDC) is seeking the intervention of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management in the recent oil spill at Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 at Nembe in Bayelsa.

The diaspora group with headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, USA requested the intervention in a letter dated Dec 17 made available in Yenagoa on Saturday.

The letter signed by Prof Monday Gold, President, and Dr Antonia Garner,

Vice President, Europe & Director of Humanitarian & Disaster Affairs, IDC noted that the leak noticed on November 1 continued unabated until Dec 8, 2021?

The Ijaw socio-cultural group stated that OML29 is operated by Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company, with 51% of its equity owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The IDC noted that the spill incident has far-reaching ecological challenges on the economic health and wellbeing of the impacted areas and people, spanning from Nembe and its connecting creeks down to the Atlantic Ocean.

“Our attention has also been drawn to the cause of the spill by the Bayelsa State government and the community, who attributed the cause of the spill to equipment failure.

“However, we await the official position of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), which is the agency saddled with the mandate to detect, monitor, and manage oil spills in Nigeria.

“We await an evidence-based investigation be embarked upon to ascertain the cause of the Spill and its volume.

“The Ijaw Diaspora Council’s Technical Advisor, Rick Steiner, estimates that with 1-2 cubic feet of discharge per second, the blowout would have released a total of 532,000 barrels – 1,064,000 barrels of oil equivalent in 38 days the leak lasted.

“The discharge of this volume of toxic hydrocarbon into the sensitive marine ecosystem of Nembe and the over 40 communities that have polluted the ecosystem and destroyed the region’s biodiversity,” the letter read in part.

The group demanded that the failed wellhead be preserved for independent engineering forensic analysis to determine the cause of the failure, in accordance with the advice given by the IDC’s Technical Advisor, Prof Rick Steiner.

They insisted that preservation of the wellhead as evidence should be in conformity to criminal evidentiary procedures, to prevent any further alteration or adulteration, and for submission to independent assessors.

IDC said it wants an independent investigation commissioned by the Nigerian Federal Government, as to the causes and consequences of the oil spill disaster, including an engineering analysis of the cause of equipment failure.

They suggested that the investigation be carried out by an independent organization like the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), and/or Det Norsk Veritas (DNV) in Norway.

The inquiry should at the official request of the Federal Government of Nigeria and Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company, as a matter of urgency, and that this independent investigation involve our technical advisor, Rick Steiner.

The group also requested an update of the mitigatory measures taken so far, in terms of humanitarian aid by the federal government to the impacted people and areas.

IDC also urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to declare the spillage a humanitarian disaster in Ijaw land and act accordingly.

It said an urgent crisis intervention remedial action and the long-term intervention plan for the indigenes to ameliorate the long-term consequences of the spill on the economy and health of the Ijaw people.

The group not lethargic Aiteo’s slow response time exacerbated the catastrophic damage that the failed oil and gas wellhead caused to the physical, economic, psychological, and general welfare of the affected communities.

“The lethargic response pace forced the victims into an immediate humanitarian crisis of epic proportions.

“Failure to treat this as a national emergency with global repercussions would be akin to the commission of crimes against humanity under the Human Rights Act and other applicable laws and treaties.

“The immediate provision of alternative sources of income, necessitated by the loss of sources of livelihood in the over 40 indigenous Ijaw communities which were directly impacted by the OML 29 oil and gas blowout.

“The immediate provision of alternative sources of income should span the projected amount of time, potentially decades, that it would take for all the affected communities to economically recover from this extremely calamitous disaster that has befallen Nigeria,” he said.