Over 350 communities, which are victims of the Bonga oil spill in Bayelsa State and negatively impacted have given Shell Nigeria Exploration Company, SNEPCO, a 14-day ultimatum to compensate them for their operations in the Niger Delta region or will be shut down.
The ultimatum was contained in a letter addressed to the Managing Director of SNEPCO by the Executive Director of Oil Spill Victims Vanguard, OSPIVV, a non governmental organisation led by Mr. Harrison Jalla. He stated that over 40,000 barrels of crude was discharged into the Atlantic Ocean as a result of equipment failure at SNEPCO’s Bonga oil field.
It will be recalled that the major spill which occurred along the Atlantic coastline in Delta and Bayelsa states on December 20, 2011, polluted a distance of 185 kilometers along the coasts of Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw and Brass Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State as well as Warri South-west, Warri North and Burutu Local Government Areas of Delta State.
He said that in the wake of the spill, aquatic lives in the areas were destroyed as fishermen were compelled to desert the sea, with farm lands, vegetation and the environment contaminated.
Jalla noted that after due process, the House of Representatives and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, levied SNEPCO the sum of $3,600,191,296 to be paid to the affected shoreline communities and the Federal Government within 14 days in a letter dated December 19, 2014.
He added that since then SNEPCO on their part have failed to obey the above order and in the light of the above, OSPIVV was giving SNEPCO 14 days from the receipt of its letter to pay all victims of the Bonga oil spill incident of December 20, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment