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Natural Justice Nigeria, the Nigerian arm of the Pan African Civil Society Group, has expressed concerned over what it described as “the repeated and persistent oil spills along the Trans Niger pipeline, particularly the section that bifurcates Bodo community, in Gokana Local Government Area.”
In a release signed by its Community Environmental Legal officer, Lawrence Barinem Dube, the organization said “Bodo, as the last community on the 180,000 BPD trans-Niger Pipeline is sitting on a hydrocarbon time bomb as a result of the failure of Shell to address the long overdue integrity, human security and environmental safety issues on the Trans-Niger Pipeline.
“Natural Justice calls on Shell and the Nigerian Government to immediately remove the oil and the gas pipelines laid in the middle of the community that transports crude oil and gas to the Bonny export terminal and other gas utilization projects,” Dube said.
Natural Justice also called on the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) “to ensure that the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) is transparent, peaceful, inclusive of all community stakeholders and line with regulatory standards,” while demanding that Shell cleans up the spills and undertake proper rehabilitation of residents whose homes and farmlands are affected by the spills.
“The persistent spills from this pipeline clearly shows that this is an environmental tragedy unfolding in instalments. Laying crude oil and gas pipelines in the middle of a densely populated community will one day lead to a humanitarian disaster if these pipelines are not removed now!
“Shell’s planned divestment of their onshore assets makes this call even more urgent. The buyers of these assets who have been handpicked by Shell will certainly neither have the technical capacity, experience nor financial standing to manage pipelines that have suffered serious and continuing under – investment and disrepair over the last five decades. They will also not be willing to take responsibility for the environmental liabilities associated with these assets,” Dube said.
Damian Gbogbara, one of the community environmental justice defenders trained by Natural Justice, explained that the spill was noticed on July 4, 2024.
He said the community is exasperated by the continuing spillages, adding that they “demand a permanent solution to the incessant oil spills from this pipeline in our community, we deserve to have an environment that supports life.”
