Members of Aghoro 1,
community, Ekeremor Local Government Area in Bayelsa on Friday berated the
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) for short-changing them.
They criticised the
oil firm for arbitrarily determining the compensation figure for the May 17,
2018 spill in the area.
The oil spill had
impacted and polluted an estimated area of 113.03 hectares.
A joint Investigation
Visit (JIV) report of the incident obtained by NAN had concluded that the leak
on the pipeline at three spots were caused by equipment failure and discharged
some 1,114 barrels of crude oil into the environment.
Mr Friday Otigha, a
Community Leader and member of the Community Development Committee (CDC) in
Aghoro 1, said that the N34 m offered by SPDC was unacceptable and had no
relation with the impact assessment report.
Otigha said that
despite a recommendation of N3.68 billion by the National Oil Spills Detection
and Response Agency (NOSDRA), SPDC proposed a paltry N34 million which the
community rejected.
He said that SPDC
connived with some unauthorised community leaders to foist the arbitrarily
determined compensation which fell short of NOSDRA compensation rates on the
community, a development that attracted sanctions to the leaders.
Otigha recalled that
the oil leak, which was reported on May 17, but the joint visit could not be
immediately conducted until June 23, a development that worsened the adverse
impact of the spill on the predominantly fishing coastal community.
He said that hundreds
of impacted fishermen thrown out of fishing by the incident were disappointed
at the turn of events as they had expected SPDC to act in line with
international best practices.
He urged the federal
government to prevail on SPDC to retrace its steps and resolve the compensation
in line with existing oil spill compensation guidelines set by the regulators.
Mr Bamidele Odugbesan,
Media Relations Manager, SPDC, had earlier assured that the oil firm would compensate
impacted victims of the spill, as well as remediate the polluted areas of the
community.
Reacting to the
allegations, Mr Michael Adande, a Spokesman of SPDC insisted that the oil firm
acted with industry stakeholders to arrive at the compensation for the oil leak
but declined to state the exact amount paid to victims of the spill..
“The SPDC conducts a
comprehensive damage assessment and enumeration exercise with active
participation of other members of the Joint Investigation Visit Team,
especially the impacted claimants.
“We also use
geomatrics map to establish the exact area of impact and extent within SPDC’s
Right of Way or third party area and the degree of impact to arrive at a fair
compensation value.
“In the case of the
regrettable incident in Aghoro in Bayelsa State and Odimodi in Delta State in
2018, SPDC has paid the agreed compensation to the affected persons and
communities.
“The NOSDRA
Post-Impact Assessment report, however , included a N2.74 billion as
‘ecological damage assessment’ for environmental restoration and not as
compensation.
“SPDC takes responsibility
for clean-up, remediation and restoration.” Adande said.
It was learnt that NOSDRA had
recommended a total of N 3.68 bn as compensation while N 930 million was paid
out to impacted communities
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