… As Kula Community Cries Out Over Oil Hazards

The people of Kula Community in the Akuku- Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, have cried out following the hazards due to oil exploration by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in the area.

Paramount ruler of Opukula community, Chief Hope Opusunju said in a chat with The Tide in Port Harcourt that the impact of the damage done the ecosystem due to oil exploration activities was posing a serious health hazard in the area.

“I am going to The Hague any moment from now and I am going to put my petition there. I will not stop. I will keep pushing at The Hague. I won’t talk to Shell in Port Harcourt, he stressed, adding “If you go to Opukula now, you will see the whole mangrove trees bearing no green leaves again rather  you will see dried firewood, what does that imply?”

“It means the whole ecosystem there are destroyed and there is crude oil everywhere. Whether they call it sabotage or they call it anything, I don’t care. What I know is that the whole place is messed up”.

Fuming, the paramount ruler said: “If Shell has seen that this thing they are doing is no more helping people again, they should close down and go. The Federal Government has not done enough and if the Federal government has done enough, Shell will not do what they are doing. They are not listening to government, that’s bad.

As he puts, it “in the US, it is the government that rules against the company but right here in Nigeria, it is the company that dictates what happens, so, I will lead a team to The Hague and will push it on till we are heard”.