Okrika Boat Owners Association has blamed the proliferation of illegal oil bunkering in the area on the non-functioning of the Port Harcourt Refinery.
Vice Chairman of the Association, Mr. Samuel Epeya, who stated this in an interview with The Tide in his office in Okrika, said non-functioning of the Port Harcourt Refinery should be blamed for the proliferation of illegal oil bunkering activities in the area.
Has said, despite the negative effect of illegal oil bunkering on Okrika vegetations, thousands of households in the area would have been without energy for cooking but for illegal oil bunkering.
He said illegal oil bunkering is providing the people with cheap kerosene, adding that kerosene from illegal oil bunkering is readily available in the area.
“The kerosene from illegal oil bunkering is handy and that is what our women are using. If not for it, it would have been difficult to get kerosene for cooking”, he said.
Though the nefarious business is impacting negatively on mangroves and the environment in Okrika, it does not cancel the fact that it provides jobs for the teeming youths in the area and energy for demostic activities, he added.
Epeya said time has come for governments to ensure that the Port Harcourt Refinery worked, to provide not only kerosene for cooking, but also jobs for the people.
Meanwhile, Epeya has commended scavengers for helping to clear waterways in the area of plastic waste.
He said, scavengers from the Northern part of Nigeria have been scavenging for plastics along waterways in the area.
Epeya expressed regrets over the continuous dumping of plastics into the Okrika waterways, stressing that this is impeding movements of boats and canoes along waterways in the area.
According to him, “even with the continuous clearing of plastic waste by scavengers, people are still dumping waste into the Okrika waterways and this thing is coming from the Port Harcourt axis”, he said.

By: John Bibor