YEAC-Nigeria Laments As Crude Oil Spill In Eteo Eleme Spread To Community’s Fresh Water Source, Destroys Natural Environment

Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) through its One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta and Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS) has received information of a new crude oil spill in Eleme Local Government Area, (Ogoni area) of Rivers State.

The spill is reported in Eteo Community, about two weeks after a similar crude oil spill that has not yet been properly contained was reported in Aleto Community, Okulu River also in Eleme on June 13.

Members of the Youth Volunteers Network in the community and “Eteo Concerned Youths” told the Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface that the spill was first noticed on Sunday, June 18 in the Oke-Olebo Stream and has destroyed the indigenous community’s fresh water bodies and the naturally environment and continuous to spread to larger areas as it is flowing with the water in its bank and channel.

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Substantiating the report with videos and photographs (available on our website at www.centreadvocacy.org) sent to Mr. Fyneface, the Volunteers and Concerned Youths said “Pipeline is not close to the area where this spill is noticed. However, there are Shell pipelines in the community which they are also currently working on a part of it but it is not close to the stream where this fresh crude oil spill was noticed on Sunday and our attention attracted to it”.

The youths also reported that there was an oil spill in the community in 2018 for which the community is currently at the Supreme Court against Shell, seeking for Justice and yet another crude spill that occurred in November 2022 as also reported by YEAC-Nigeria through its COSAS and then this fresh one.

From the short videos of the crude oil spill incident sent to the Environmental Justice Activist, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface crude oil could be seen oozing from the ground and flowing freely under fresh water environment vegetation with some of the flora already withering away.

YEAC-Nigeria calls on National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to IMMEDIATELY lead a delegation of operators including Shell that has pipeline right of way in the community together with non-governmental organizations, the media, community leadership, political leaders in the area and other critical stakeholders to Eteo for a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to the spill site with a view of determining the cause of the crude oil spill and steps taken to clamp the spill point to forestall further devastation of the ecosystem especially as the implementation of the UNEP Report on Ogoni (Ogoni Cleanup Project) being undertaken by Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) is ongoing in the Ogoni area.

Signed,

FYNEFACE DUMNAMENE FYNEFACE,
Executive Director, YEAC-Nigeria.
June 21, 2023