Rotary Club Advocates Cleanup Of Nigeria's First Oil Well Community In Bayelsa

The Otuabagi Community, which is home to the Oloibiri oilfields in Ogbia, Bayelsa, has been recommended for cleanup by the Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Eco Chapter.

On Saturday, Iniruo Wills, the chapter's incoming president and a former commissioner for the environment in Bayelsa, made the decision while the club was meeting with local stakeholders.

Oloibiri, a historical neighbourhood in Nigeria, is where oil was first discovered in commercial quantities in 1956.

According to Wills, the purpose of the conference was to raise awareness of the damaging environmental consequences that the community's oil extraction had many years ago.

He said that the purpose of the club's trip to Otuabagi was to assess the detrimental effects of oil drilling on the local population and to highlight the urgent need for rehabilitation.

Although oil prospecting in the area had ended more than 30 years prior, he claimed that every time it rained, residual oil leakages continued to damage the ecosystem.

Wills added that the lack of measures to reduce leakage from the dry wells was causing inhabitants of the complex to endure unspeakable hardships.

He urged the Federal Government and the oil sector to respond to the needs of oil-producing areas, particularly after the oil wells had run dry.

Residents reported that petroleum still occasionally flowed out from the wellheads to poison their surroundings, according to a speech by Public Health Physician Dr Bieye Briggs.

Briggs stated that the people were in grave danger and added that oil was destroying aquatic life, including fish and shrimp.

“Those hydrocarbons discharged have been concentrated within the aquatic space and contaminate the fauna and flora and they become poisonous to human lives.

“That is why within a period of 10 years to 15 years you begin to see cancer, kidney diseases, liver problems, lungs and respiratory disorders because of the oil pollution in the environment,” he said.

Briggs added that the locals relied on the subsurface waters, which were also impacted by the leftover oil leaks.

The locals, he claimed, also frequently discovered oily particles floating in their stream.

Additionally, Emem Okon, a previous club president, stated that oil and gas corporations had neglected the neighbourhood for years.

Davies Okarevu, President of PH Plus-Eco Rotary, urged people to join the organisation in order to support socially beneficial humanitarian endeavours.

According to Okarevu, the club is about giving back to society and feeling accomplished by advancing humankind.

Chief Joseph Erefa, the acting chairman of the Council of Chiefs in Otuobagi, expressed concern over the community's long-term neglect and political plotting using oil.

Additionally, Erefa urged the Federal Government and oil companies to rethink their approach to the neighbourhood.

In order to lessen the suffering of the locals, he referred to the region as the "goose that lays the golden egg" and pleaded with the oil firms to give social amenities.

The club went to Oil 1 and 2, also known as the Oloibiri oilfields, which are located within Oil Mining Lease 29 and were once run by Shell Production Development Company.

Including the 97-kilometre Nembe Creek Trunkline that connects the Bonny Exit Terminal to independent operator Aiteo, SPDC had sold its shareholding in OML 29 in 2015 for $2.4 billion.