CDC cries out over Unattended Oil spillage in Bayelsa

…Calls for urgent intervention
Kenny EMMAN

The Peremabiri Community Development Committee, in Peremabiri community, Bayelsa, has cried out over the continuous unattended oil spillage in the area.
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Mr Return Koma, Chairman, of the committee in a statement in Yenagoa lamented that a petroleum development company has been insensitive over an oil spill that occurred in the area for two weeks now.
The chiefs, elders, youths and women groups in the coastal settlement on the banks of River Nun in Southern Ijaw Local Government, said that the spill was yet to abate.
Koma said that the continuous discharge of crude into the environment had polluted the Nun river, swamps and farmlands, causing untold hardships to the predominantly fishing and farming settlements.
He called on Bayelsa Government and regulators to rise up to the occasion and halt the leak.
He also called on the Bayelsa State Ministry of Mineral Resources, Ministry of Environment and Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) like the Environmental Rights Action, to intervene.
Koma said that the leak had polluted the entire Diebu Creek area, adding that Peremabiri community was currently bleeding profusely with oil spills.
He said that the whole river, swamps, ponds, farmlands and the general environment of the community had been devastated by the spillage.
The chairman said that immediate remediation of the spill site was needed while advocating a Joint Investigation Visit team to ascertain the remote causes of the incident.
He said the community needed relief materials, and comprehensive health care arrangements for the affected people.
Koma urged residents in the various fishing and farming settlements along the spill site to relocate to safer locations in view of the health implications.