Gas Eruption: Egi Communities Seek Govt’s Intervention

Some oil producing communities in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State are calling on the Rivers State Government, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Federal Ministry of Environment to expedite action on the gas eruption in their areas.

The communities include Obite, Egita, Ogbogu and Obiebe whose property had been destroyed by an oil spill and gas eruption, which resulted from an oil rig operated by Total Exploration and Production Limited last week.

The Tide gathered that the oil and gas rig is now affecting the people in the areas as some of the people who spoke on the incident appealed to the Federal Government to intervene immediately to address the menace caused by the spill and gas eruption.

A paramount ruler in one of the communities, Obite, Chief John Ejah called on the state government to come to the aid of the people and give all necessary assistance to save them from further health hazards following the emission of the oil and gas.

Ejah further said: “We are calling on the Federal Government and in fact, the whole world to intervene because this is not a child’s play. It has destroyed our land. There is no farmland again, our women can no longer go to the farm and there is no good water any more. Our water is full of the gas, so it’s a very big problem here”.

According to him, “since the exploration of oil in Nigeria or even Africa, we have not experienced this kind of disaster.

The legislator representing the area in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon Gift Wokocha confirmed the incident, saying that he moved around to visit the affected areas to have a first hand information of the oil leak and gas explosion in the affected places.

Meanwhile, the President-general of Egi Peoples Assembly, Chief Oris Oyiri had in a press briefing in Port Harcourt said that the gas eruption which resulted from an explosion from a platform belonging to a multinational oil company, Total Exploration and Production Limited had devastated the farmlands and other economic and environmental resources of the areas.

Chief Oyiri observed that there was palpable fear of contamination of air and water in the affected communities and urged the Total E & P Limited to provide emergency relief materials and medical assistance to the people affected by the incident.

Meanwhile, all efforts to reach the management of Total E & P Limited proved abortive and as at press time, the company is yet to make a statement on the issue.

Shedie Okpara