Residents of the riverine community of Odioma, in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State are still counting their losses as the devastating effects of last December oil spillage, which wrecked overwhelming havoc on their aquatic lives and farmlands continue to raise serious concern, regarding their means of livelihood.

The growing cases of oil spill in the Niger-Delta region have become  recurring phenomena. For decades, oil producing communities in the South-South have been battling with multinational oil companies and the Federal Government on the need to pre-empt and contain oil spills that had culminated in gross environmental pollution, destruction of sea lives and diminishing quality of soil texture.

Predominantly, inhabitants of Odioma and other coastal communities in Southern Ijaw and Ekeremor Local Government councils, including Bisangbene, Letugbene, Agge and Ogulagha, Odimodi, in Delta State terribly affected by the Bonga Oil Spill, from the platform of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) are fishermen. So, the spill, which occurred a day before the celebration of Christmas, was a big blow to their means of livelihood.

In all, no fewer than 64 communities both in Bayelsa and Delta States are faced with negative impacts of the spill from SPDC facilities.

The latest spillage, which is adjudged to be one of the worst in 10 years, occurred four months after a major United Nations (UN) study said it may take Shell, Chevron and other oil multinationals 30 years and a whooping sum $1billion to effectively carry out a comprehensive cleaning of spills in the Niger Delta region.

Just last year August, SPDC admitted responsibility for two major spills in the Bodo region of Delta, which took place in 2008. But, up till now compensation had not been paid to the victims.

Crude oil production capacity from Bonga Field which hovers around 200,000 barrels per day had already been halted as a result of the December 24, 2011 spill. Investigations revealed that the spill area covered more than 923 square kilometres. Findings indicated that no lesser than 40,000 barrels of crude had spilled into the Atlantic Ocean.

When Sunday Tribune visited Odioma community on Thursday, the griming effects of the spillage were too visible on the outlook of the villagers, like a group of people mourning the sudden death of their heirs apparent. Majority of their men wore a long face as they clustered in groups, discussing the consequences of the spill and how they could wriggle out of their debilitating predicaments.

They could not fish again. Oblivious of the impacts of the spill, children under the age of four were spotted playing around the thatched huts and mud houses while their parents were sobered by the glaring economic hardship staring them in the face.

Many wooden and speed boats had been moved to the shore and river banks, signalling the temporary end of any adventure into the sea and other adjourning rivers, just as fishing lines and nets had been hung on the walls of the mud houses.

A visitor to Odioma, would be moved by the sight of dead fish of different species, particularly the popular Bonga fish, which is common in the coastal settlements and other neighbouring communities. The fish littered the sea shores and river banks, while many of them were seen floating on the water surface. The dead fish had been blackened by crude oil, which spilled in thousands of barrels not only into the sea, but also into the Atlantic Ocean.

The outburst of stakeholders and residents in the coastal community really showcased the bottled up anger in them as they minced no word to express their feelings over the economic implication of the spill to their struggle to earn a living.

According to the chairman of Odioma Oil and Gas Committee, Chief Samuel Tubolanyo and his secretary, Mr Evans Baribote, “we are still contemplating on how we can get out of myriad of problems occasioned by this spillage. The solution to this problem is still shrouded in mystery as the SPDC keeps denying the incontrovertible facts that we are affected by this oil spill.”

Continuing, Chief Tubolanyo stated that, “the community expressed regret that the SPDC has deliberately concealed facts about the Bonga oil spill as it affected the Odioma kingdom. We have evidences of damages done to us as a people and we would prove same when asked or required to do so.

“Our water has been completely polluted and our means of livelihood severely damaged, thereby destroying the eco-system and economic well-being of Odioma people, most of who are fishermen,” he asserted.

While calling on the SPDC to fully accept responsibility for the damages precipitated by the spill, Chief Tubolanyo, urged the oil multinational giant to speed up cleanup activities and also provide relief materials for the fishermen.

In a chat with our correspondent, Lucky Tema, a fisherman in Odioma expressed worry over the low catch of fish since the December 2011 spill disaster.

He said: “I have been in this fishing camp here in Odioma for about 12 years now. I am from Ilaje and fishing is my main occupation. That is what I do here. As you can see, I’m just returning from the ocean. If you go into the ocean, you will find the thick slick of crude oil floating, tossed here and there by the waves. It is spreading due to the dictates of the water current. That is what we are seeing even right here at the waterside on St. Nicholas.”

“As a fisherman, one of the things I know about this crude oil is that, apart from killing aquatic life, it chases away the fishes that used to be around. If our nets get in contact with the crude oil, it would be stained and because of the smell and its colour, fish will avoid such nets in the water. Look at the little catch that I just returned with. This is not how it used to be. Our efforts are yielding far below expectations these days. It is quite sad,” Tema lamented.

Apparently corroborating the submission of Tema, Ayeomane Ayela, another fisherman said: “Before now, we were managing to keep our body and soul together with the proceeds from fish sales to the people. But, our condition now is pathetic, considering the latest spill from Bonga Oil Field. It is a terrible development, which is already threatening our survival instinct.”

His words: “Actually, we started noticing this crude oil on the Atlantic some weeks ago. But it came ashore about three days ago. Oil spillage vividly affects our fishing business and this one is not an exception. We used to catch enough fish before, but it is now extremely difficult. I go into the ocean almost every day and, since we began experiencing this spill, we have been unhappy.

He further said: “if you had come when we had full tide, you would have noticed the crude oil slick all around the shorelines. Now the water has ebbed, though you can still see signs of crude oil at the waterfront.

“But I think a responsible government should be able to appreciate our plight and assist us. Because of this kind of situation, we are becoming debtors as we hardly even meet up the payment of fuel we use to run our ocean-bound speed boats. Our business has been negatively affected as a result of this terrible development. Bonga fish that used to come to the surface are no more. As you can see, we are powerless, we cannot order the government on what to do” he submitted.

A farmer, identified as Boloubu Ebikake said crops leaves in his farmland, just like any other area had turned yellow since the spillage crept in December.

“Definitely, we are not expecting good harvest this year. That is not even the major problem. The quality of the soil or its texture would affect and this poses a dangerous trend to our continued farming or cultivation in these areas,” he said.

Similarly, a stakeholder from the Niger Delta region, Osteen Igbapike (Esq), who is a counsel to Odimodi, Isiayei-Gbene, Beniboye and Samayin-Gbidipou of Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State, while speaking to Sunday Tribune expressed anger over what he termed the lackadaisical attitude of the Federal Government, regarding the Bonga spill. He cited the United States government’s role in the case of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill which held BP accountable for deepwater spill sometime in 2011.

Said he: “I have read with utter embarrassment the comments of the Honourable Minister of Environment, Hajia Adiza Ibrahim Mailafia, after an inspection of the Bonga deep offshore facility in company of the Director-Generals (DGs) of NIMASA and NOSDRA on the very unfortunate oil spillage which spilt about 40,000 barrels (using Shell’s own estimate) of crude oil into Nigeria’s maritime area. The Bonga oil Field belongs to Shell but is operated by Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).

“Nigeria is a maritime state with a maritime area of 46,510sq Km. Nigeria has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 210, 900 sq km and 853km of coastline which is shared by all of Nigeria’s coastal states of Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo Ondo, Lagos and so on. This is the area wherein Shell’s SNEPCO has negligently on December 20, 2011 “during routine operations to transfer crude oil from Bonga FPSO Vessel to a waiting tanker through an export line linking the FPSO, polluted with 40,000 barrels of oil which could be more if proper assessment and inspection of the spill facility is carried out strictly following due process”, Barrister Igbapike remarked.

Continuing, he argued that “Nigeria and those on whom the buck rest on issues of protecting the environment have learnt nothing from the very recent Gulf of Mexico oil spillage wherein 45,000 gallons of crude was spilt into the Atlantic Ocean. The Bonga Oil Spill is a point source and a third tier spill.  A third tier spill ought to be a national emergency and the response cannot be led by the polluter itself. What is happening now from the Bonga spill is that the polluter is in charge of the regulators because the regulators do not have helicopters, vessels, dispersants, booms and the expertise to manage oil spill response.”

But contrary to the claims of the Odioma community, SPDC spokesperson, Mr Precious Okolobo posited that the spill did not get to the shores of the coastal community.

According to him, “the oil was largely dispersed by Sunday, December 25, 2011 due to natural processes of dispersion, spreading and evaporation and the integrated efforts of SNEPCO, government and our industry partners.”

While Okolobo insisted that initial modelling suggested 50 per cent of the total spill had gone via natural processes by December 22, 2011, he said “oil disperses naturally through evaporation and bio-degradation. Dispersants speed up natural dispersion. Main benefits are that they remove concentrated oil from water surface and disperse oil into the water column where it naturally degrades.

“It is important to understand that the Bonga FPSO is 120km offshore, about one hour by a helicopter flight from Warri. There are no communities near the facility. As part of our emergency response planning, we envisage the most likely emergency response scenarios and plan accordingly. To ensure no oil from the Bonga leak reached the beach, we leveraged assets from around Shell’s global portfolio.  We also worked with and benefited from the assistance of our industry partners.  Our main goal was to ensure the oil fully dispersed and that none of it reached the shore.  We were successful”, the SPDC spokesman emphasised.

We believe the oil on the beach is not from Bonga. We made significant progress every day to disperse the oil that leaked from Bonga. We were disappointed to see images of a third party spill which appeared to be from a vessel in the middle of an area that we had previously cleaned up,” he added.

“We advise the peaceful populace of Yenagoa to remain calm, but strong and vigilant as we work together to overcome these challenges,” he stated.