Celestine Akpobari, an environmental activist who visited the site, said the inferno occurred just a few meters away from a military surveillance post.
A trunk line carrying crude oil in the Goi community in the Ogoniland area of Rivers State became engulfed in dark plums of smoke and flames on Monday morning. The trunk line belongs to the Shell Petroleum Development Company.
Celestine Akpobari, an environmental activist who visited the site, said the inferno occurred just a few meters away from a military surveillance post. According to her, the fire immediately followed the sound of an eruption affecting the Agbada/Bomu trunk line.
“Goi, another Ogoni community, is on fire this early morning from an eruption on the 28-inch Agbada/Bomu trunkline belonging to Shell, which is just a few meters from the surveillance post,” she told our correspondent.
“The first eruption which led to a serious fire outbreak occurred in the same community last July 10, 2016, leading to a complete destruction of livelihoods belonging to the entire Akpene kindred,” she explained.
She also noted, “The [United Nations Environmental Program] recommended immediate decommissioning [of the trunk line] and I think it is high time Shell remove their pipeline from Ogoni,” the activist stated.
It will be recalled that oil facilities like this have been the target of militant groups in the Niger Delta area since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office last year.
NAN
