For the sixth day running, a pipeline belonging to Agip Oil, which was vandalised on three spots in Ikarama oil fields located in Yenagoa, has continued to spill crude to the environment.
Two of the spots have been discharging crude into the environment since March 21, 2014.
The development, which was confirmed in a report by Environmental Rights Action/Friends of Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), showed that the spills occurred on two different pipelines within the oil field operated by Agip in the area.
In the report signed by Mr. Alagoa Morris, Head of Field Operations in ERA/FoEN’s Bayelsa office, hee noted that the oil thieves excavated the earth to expose the pipelines which they abandoned after their illicit act.
According to ERA/FoEN, an environment-focused group, the spill was reported to it by members of the community after which it dispatched field monitors to the location.
“The spills were discovered on the 21st of March 2014, by Mr. Washington Odoyibo from Ikarama community while he was going to assist a friend on a fishing expedition. He promptly called the Yenagoa office of Environmental Rights Action (ERA/FoEN) to complain of the predicament that has befallen their people and ERA/FoEN mobilised to site and returned with these findings,” Morris said.
When contacted, Mr Tajudeen Adigun, spokesman of Nigerian Agip Oil Company, declined comments and directed all inquiries to the company’s managing director in Abuja.
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