By Amos Okioma
The people of Egbo Quaters in Uwheru clan of Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State have cried to Heritage Operational Services Limited to quickly intervene in an oil spillage on its facilities at Evwreni well 8 and 9 that occurred since the 20th of October 2017.
A resident of the quarters, Odion Andrew Umukoro, said that they woke up to see crude oil gushing out from a section of the pipelines that connects the well head; and immediately alerted Heritage Operational Services Limited.
The facility was formerly owned by SPDC which recently sold it to Heritage Operational Services Limited.
According to him, the spill may have occurred due to equipment failure and the operators responded with assurance that they were coming to fix it but failed, while the spill is gradually spreading to the adjourning land and farmlands and crops .
Conducting journalists round the oil spill, another community leader, Boggie Ogbe, said that they had reported the spill to Heritage Operational Services Limited which promised to rectify the fault, but the company had not responded , stressing, “the more they delayed, the more devastating and militating havoc being caused to the aquatic life and the entire environment since the pipeline is on top of a stream which is seriously flowing to other quarters where the stream water flowed into.”
At the moment the community’s sources of livelihood – farming and fishing – are in jeopardy unless urgent remediation is carried out famine is eminent in the community, as they are about to enter dry season when the planting of sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, plantain, and okra will commence.
A community leader, Godwin Okpidama, said that the affected facility which had been stopped to avert further spills, produces 78 barrels of crude per day.
He said that by the unfortunate spill the nation was losing incalculable sums of money and therefore called on all relevant agencies responsible for oil spill and environmental remediation to quickly nip the spill in the bud to save not only further environmental hazards but the nation from losing such colossal amount of money.
He also called on government to intervene in the release of the Egbo community leaders, Odion, Andrew Umukoro, who had been arrested and detained by the police in Ughelli.