A nongovernmental organisation, Akwa Ibom Oil Producing Community Development Network (AKIPCON), has faulted a Joint Investigation Report (JIV) of National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) in Akwa Ibom state in respect of the November 6, 2020 oil spill.
The recent massive spillage committed by the oil giant, Exxon Mobil, occurred in one of the oil company’s onshore facilities in the Atlantic Ocean.
The position of AKIPCON was contained in a release jointly signed by the President General Dr. Ufot Phenson and Evangelist Emmanuel Bassey – Secretary General of AKIPCON as obtained by our correspondent in Uyo
.
The statement said: “JIV report has failed to comply with the Agency’s Established Template to determine the estimated quantity of crude oil spilled, identify in specific terms the locations and extent of the spill, cause of the spill, impact of the spill on the people’s means of livelihood.”
It further stated that the “spill affected many fishing settlements/communities and the adjoining coastal local government areas in Akwa Ibom state as well as Atlantic Ocean shorelines in Ibeno local government area spanning several kilometers with attendant damage to the environment, including the biodiversity, water resources, fishery resources, socio-economic losses with human rights implications.”
AKIPCON observed with total dismay and disappointment the manner in which National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) in Akwa Ibom state has not carry out its core mandates of remediation and damage assessment for the purpose of ensuring sustainable environment and payment of compensation to oil spill victims in oil producing communities in the state by oil companies.
The group lamented that this unfortunate development is one of the major factors responsible for the denials of the peasant fishermen and farmers in the oil producing communities of their rights for payment of compensation to alleviate their sufferings.
The statement frowned at the failure of NOSDRA and other Regulatory Agencies to initiate remediation and damage assessment for the purpose of ensuring sustainable environment and payment of compensation to the oil spill victims by oil companies, described damage assessment as a necessary process for gathering information on the extent of damage to the environment, economic trees, crops, socio-economic losses, fishery resources, and so on.
AKIPCON also observed that NOSDRA did not carry out damage assessment which provides necessary information on the extent of spill damage to the environment.