Abereke Community in Ondo and Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company (AEEPC) are currently at loggerheads over certain claims demanded by the former for violating its environment.
Specifically,the embattled community demanded N20 billion compensation claims relief material from Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company (AEEPC) for the damage caused to its environment due to the company’s oil spill.
The community conveyed its demand in a petition to the Nigeria’s Senate President,Ahmed Lawan and obtained by PremiumNews
The community claimed that the oil spilled at the Santa Barbara Christmas Tree, belonging to oil company, was washed down to the Community by waves and tides thereby destroying aquatic lives and fuana which are the mainstay of the people.
The petition stated that the spilled crude oil which measures about over one million barrels has rendered about 3000 persons, who belong to cooperative fishing society jobless while rendering an unknown number of farmers’ farms useless.
According to the petition,about 200,000 inhabitants of the community witnessed the pollution of their environment which lasted for over 30 days, belching smokes that destroyed fuana and farm lands while the crude destroyed the aquatic lives.
They informed that the spilled crude was driven by the waves and tides all the way from the Nemmbe creeks via the Atlantic Ocean to their area where it was further forced in to the estuaries and rivers in the community.
Besides,the community demanded that Aiteo upon receipt of the petition, should dispatch team of experts to stop its further spread and clean up the spill.
They said the cleanup exercise should commence immediately to stem further damage to the environment and the people,adding that the oil company should provide relief materials to already displaced and disengaged by the oil spill in other to cushion the effects of the spill.
The Abereke community explained that the N20 billion compensation would act as repayment for damages do to the environment, repayment for the disruption and destruction of their means of livelihood and for relocation of those badly affected.
But Aiteo punctured the claims of the community, adding that the community has no claim to make, since the incident was actuated by a third party through the acts of vandalism but to no fault of the company.
Speaking through its group head media and strategy, Indiana-Abasi Mathew, the company added that petroleum industry regulators sign off on Aiteo SBAR 01 a result of third party interference.
He said a post – spill Joint Investigation Visit to the Sbas 01 Leak site was successfully completed,adding that officials of governments and his company attended the meeting where they also came up with nine-points technical JIV summary which didn’t find his company liable.
” In all we had nine persons from Bayelsa State against three nominated by the Honorable Minister of Environment.The representatives took turns to inspect the well head. At the end of the exercise, there was a debrief session where each participating group gave their verdict on the possible cause of spill which was the main objective of the investigation.
“All the regulators; NUPRC, NOSDRA, and NAPIMS held that the incident was due to a third party interference while Bayelsa State Ministry Of Environment, Opu Nembe Community and the Nembe local government representatives speculated that it could have been due to equipment failure.The regulators signed off the statutory JIV forms as “third party interference” while all the representatives from the state declined to endorse the document for both the regulators and the operator,” the company said.