Relatives of the victims of the pipeline explosion at Agip’s oil field at Azuzuama community in
Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa have decried the neglect and
insensitivity of the oil firm.
A pipeline explosion on July 9, 2015 left 14 people
including a regulatory official of Bayelsa Ministry of Environment and National
Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and 12 others dead.
Officials of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC),
representatives of the host community and Bayelsa Ministry of Environment were
investigating the cause of a recent oil spill in the area when the blast
occurred.
The Director-General of the oil spill agency NOSDRA Dr Peter Idabor had bemoaned the poor safety
procedures at Agip’s oilfields which resulted to death of its staff and an
official of Bayelsa Ministry of Environment.
“It is such a painful experience to us in NOSDRA, we have
informed the family of the affected staff who hailed from Enugu state and we
are in talks with Bayelsa government who also lost a staff from its ministry of
environment.
“This incident shows the kind of risks and hazards that
our officers are constantly exposed to in the discharge of our mandate at
oilfields amidst daunting challenges and limitations,” Idabor said.
More than one year afterwards relatives of
the victims of the July 9 , 2015 blast say that the pains of the loss were still
with them even as they accused Agip of neglecting the dependants of the
victims.
Mr Clinton Italia a relative of one of the
victims said on Wednesday that all that the family got was a N800,000
burial assistance and N7.4 million interim palliative.
“Life has been difficult and painful for the
families of the victims of the explosion at Azuzuama. Apart from the burial
assistance and the sum of N7.4 million, nothing has been done to the oilfield
to forestall future accidents.
“The dependants of the deceased feel
abandoned as Agip is yet to pay the main compensation, we have waited for the
compensation and other promises they made to no avail and we are looking at
ways of taking up the case with them.” Italia said.
Mr Karibi MacDonald , Spokesman of the bereaved families
said on Wednesday in Yenagoa that Agip had neither shown remorse nor
commiserated with his family and that of other victims.
“ It is very unfortunate that Agip is so insensitive to
the needless death of 14 Nigerians due to the poor safety records in their oil
fields, there has been no contact with us, relatives of late staff of Bayelsa
Environment Ministry.
“The stance of Agip since this incident occurred has been
regrettable they have not bothered to contact us even during the burial of the
victims, when my own brother was d we did not see Agip.
“It is very sad that a foreign company can be this
arrogant and be shying away from its liability and could not even commiserate
with the bereaved families.
“We are calling on the federal government who are their
joint venture partners to call them to order to avert incurring the wrath of
the dead, the total lack of remorse by Agip is unacceptable.
“So far, preliminary investigations show that no effort
was made to prevent the explosion as flammable materials were not cleared from
the site before repair work, neither was the pipeline shut.
“What happened was
not an accident, it was preventable, Agip killed our brothers and they are not
sorry about what has happened,” MacDonald said..
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth
Nigeria had on September 16 demanded
$28 million compensation for 14 victims, amounting to $2 million for each
victim.
However, Eni ,
Italian Energy firm and the parent company of NAOC declined to comment on the
development when contacted.
No comments:
Post a Comment