Controversy erupted on Thursday over an alleged oil spill in Nigeria’s troubled Ogoniland in the Niger Delta region, with Anglo-Dutch group Shell again at the centre of the row.
A Shell representative said vandals had tampered with its mothballed Yorla oil well in the Kpean area of Ogoni on Monday night, triggering a gas leakage which polluted the environment but was now under control.
But local community leaders insisted that oil was mixed with the gas and had spilled into fields, while the pollution had triggered health problems among local people.
Community unrest forced Shell, Nigeria’s oil major accounting for one-third of the west African country’s 2,018-million barrels daily output, to suspend operations in Ogoniland in 1993.
”Some people tampered with our facility which caused a gas leakage that has affected the environment,” said Shell’s representative Bisi Ojediran. ”Our team of engineers have been able to secure the oil well.”
But a representative for the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) rejected Shell’s claims. ”It was a spill that has affected two kilometres of farmlands
and creeks. If Shell says it is a gas leakage, we are not disputing them” said Bariara Kpalap. ”How can you separate gas from oil?”
The people have been complaining of respiratory problems, diarrhoea and itching because of the spillage,” he said. Kpalap said Mosop has appealed to Shell to clear the spill.
”We sent our team of investigators to the site and as at last night (Wednesday) they reported to us that Shell has not cleaned the spill,” he added.
Cases of oil spillage, hostage-taking and attacks on oil installations are common in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Militant youths often carry out attacks to force oil companies to provide money, jobs and amenities in their communities.
Shell, the largest oil firm operating in Nigeria, is a frequent target, and Mosop has clashed with its operatives and the Nigerian goverment.
In 1995 Ken Saro-Wiwa, a former leader of Mosop, was convicted of incitement to murder by a military tribunal and executed alongside eight supporters, in a trial which drew international condemnation. – Sapa-AFP