The Rivers State House of Assembly has condemned the spate of environmental degradation caused by persistent oil spills within the state.
This was sequel to the resolution of the House after the report of the Adhoc committee on “Investigation of the Aleto Crude oil spillage and the call for intervention was presented on the floor of the House.
They identified oil pollution and exploration by multinational companies operating in Rivers State and decried the slow response of the multinational corporations whenever the spills occur.
The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule emphasized the negative impacts of environmental degradation on the people and called on Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to situp
He explained the continuous degradation of the environment by SPDC as a result of its exploration activities stating that the Assembly will not fold it’s arm to watch Rivers people suffer because of the non chalant attitude of any company.
He however commended the committee for mediating between SPDC and the communities especially for ensuring that SPDC commenced repair work immediately while other issues are being considered.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Adhoc committee, Dumle Maol while presenting his committee’s report said the committee found out among other things a massive and devastating crude oil spillage on Shell Petroleum Development company 28 Trans-Niger pipeline (TNT) Right of way, Eleme zone 2.
They also found out that the pipe line is buried five feet underground, a joint investigation completed, and SPDC given access to the incident site hence no security breach adding that SPDC has sent relief materials to the affected areas.
The committee however recommended that SPDC should immediately commence the clean up of and remediation of the affected and impacted communities in line with the provision of the extant laws.
They also recommended that SPDC should continue to engage with the affected and impacted communities on other benefits associated with the oil spillage while ensuring adherence to the agreement .
It would be recalled that the Oil Spillage which affected the Eleme Communities of Aleto, Agbonchia, Akpajo, Okerewa and Njuru, has also spread through the waterways fom Aleto (Eleme) to Elelenwo (Obio/Akpor), Mbaka-Ama and Okujagu-Ama (Okrika), all boundary coastline.
