As the alarm raised by Sangama Community in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State over the gas leak from a facility belonging the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) continues to cause disquiet in several quarters, stakeholders have thrown their weight behind the community seeking for justice.

Youth Leader of Sangama Community, Iyalla John-Jumbo told Kristina Reports in a text message on Friday, September 10, 2022 that “environmental justice is what we are asking for”.

“You cannot allow your facility to spread dangerous gas into our atmosphere and put the lives of our people at risk and refuse to take responsibility”.

“We want the Federal Government to direct the NPDC to shut down the facility, conduct air quality assessment in and around the community, provide medical checks for our people who were in the vicinity when and for the period the incident happened, and engage the community to discuss how to resolve this issue.”

John-Jumbo’s position is coming on the heels of the visit of the Chairman of Bonny LGA, Dame Anengi Wilcox to the incident site, alongside her Vice, Omoni Longjohn, and Chief of Staff, Austin Pepple; and the Councillor representing Ward 10 in the Bonny Legislative Assembly, Kingsley Jumbo, among others.   

During the visit, Dame Wilcox told the NPDC team she met at the site to convey her displeasure to their management, strongly advising the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) to firm up Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) compliance in its operations.

She warned the company to ensure that there is no repeat of gas leakage around its facilities in Bonny LGA, noting that safety and quality control are twin working conditions that should not be compromised for any reason, just as she took note of the shutdown of the facility for re-engineering purposes, asserting that the consequences of hazardous acts were too expensive to tolerate.

An unnamed official of the NPDC, who received the LGA Boss and briefed her on the state of affairs, explained that the gas flow had already been shut down, assuring of his company’s commitment to remedy the situation.

In a telephone chat with Kristina Reports, the lawmaker representing Ward 10 in the Bonny Legislative Assembly, which comprises Sangama Community among others, Kingsley Jumbo declared that communities in that axis were already impacted by the gas leak as atmospheric conditions have ensured that the escaped gas was spread by wind to neighbouring communities.

Also, speaking a native of Georgekiri Community, neighbours to Sangama Community, Allwell Lawson cried out that the incident has already begun to affect members of his community, calling on the relevant authorities to urgently intervene to rescue the situation.

A member of Sangama Community, who spoke to Kristina Reports on condition of anonymity, warned against blaming the people of the area for the incident, disclosing that the said wellhead belonging to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) has a camera on it, which recording can show what happened to the facility.

“We know how these people, oil companies behave, next thing now they will say it is third party or community boys. Let them know that we know that there is a camera on the facility which recording everything happening around the wellhead.”

“We demand that they play the recording for all to see and let experts independently assess what happened so that we can be sure. Our people who have been affected by the incident must be taken care of and our environment that has been affected has to be remediated.”