From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa

The people of the coastal communities of Odimodi, Beneboye and Isiayeigbene in Iduwini Clan of Burutu Local Government area of Delta State have called on Brittania-U to take responsibility for the crude oil spill which occurred on the coastline line on the July 18, 2024.

The communities said the spill was caused by a fire incident that gutted one of the company’s vessels ferrying crude oil products.

Recall that the communities had reported a massive oil pollution ravaging the Forcados area, which affected the Odimodi, Beneboye, Isiayeigbene and Okuntu community coastline in July.

According to separate reports from the communities, the crude oil spill was caused by a fire incident which happened on a Floating Production Storage and Offloading Facility owned by Brittina-U Nigeria Limited, at Ajakpa Field, OML 90.

This was made known by the communities during a People’s Assembly Action organized by Community Development Advocacy Foundation (CODAF) in the respective affected communities, as part of the lineup of activities towards the African People’s Counter COP (APCC) which is supported by the Africa Climate Justice Collective (ACJC) aimed at exposing the oil spill crisis caused by Brittania-U in the affected communities.

While speaking to the respective communities, Executive Director of CODAF, Richard Benin stated that the domestic and international oil exploration companies in the Niger Delta region have continued to pollute the environment because they are aware of the inability of the communities to speak together in one voice, to demand accountability from the companies and the government who are key beneficiaries of oil extraction, while the common folks are left to bear the brunt of degraded environments.

According to him, CODAF and other affiliate organizations in Nigeria, Africa and the world can only act on these reports if the communities can be united to speak about their challenges and tell the world about their stories of hunger, poverty, health challenges and neglect, despite their status as an oil rich region.

The people of the communities lamented that despite the grave health damages, environmental and air pollution caused by the spill, neither the company, NOSDRA or any other agency have visited the communities to ascertain the level of damages caused by the spill and how the fishing and farming folks have survived in the face of their degraded environment and the destruction of livelihood.

According to the Beneboye community representative, “We woke up in the night and saw fire in the sea. The company vessel was burning; we called our landlords in Odimodi to report the issue. At about 12 midnight, the smell of crude was everywhere. It affected everybody in the community. We could not breathe, our children were coughing and when we woke up in the morning, the crude from the burning vessel had washed onto our land”.

“There was nowhere to walk. Everywhere had been polluted with crude oil and all the people who went fishing the next day came back empty handed. They could not pull out their nets because they were soaked with crude. The crude spread from the sea into the creeks and destroyed our land. Even the palm fruits we used to cook before, we can’t use them anymore because they are contaminated”.

“When we eat it now, it gives us a cough. We have suffered different kinds of sickness since then. We have been through a lot since that spill happened in July. That is how we have been suffering since then. We have evidence of some of the crude we collected from the spill.

According to Beauty Omaseye: “When we heard you people were coming, we were happy. We thought the company had finally heard our cry. Since that Brittania- U spill happened, all my husband’s nets were destroyed by the spill. I borrowed money to help my husband buy a net, yet no fish in the sea to catch”.

“I am in debt now, my children are hungry. All my farms have been destroyed. Schools have resumed for the past 3 weeks but we don’t have money to send them back to school. Brittania-U should have mercy on us”.

Meanwhile, as part of efforts towards mitigating the impacts of climate change, environmental pollution and remediation, CODAF inaugurated the “A Million Tree School Club Project” in Odimodi Secondary School, Odimodi”.

The inauguration was done to commission a young generation of environmentally conscious youth, educating them on the importance of tree planting, its effect on climate change and the need for environmental restoration, especially among oil producing communities.