Itsekiri, Ijaw, and Urhobo ethnic nationalities and groups in Delta State, impacted by the massive spill of thousands of barrels of crude oil from an oil vessel, MT. J. S Amazing, Lagos Oil, over 13 years ago, have bitterly complained that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, and Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company Limited, NPSCL, abandoned them, since the unfortunate saga.
Representatives of the affected 245 communities and groups, who spoke to Saturday Vanguard, said the spill from the said vessel, registration number, IMO 7304443, at the NNPCL, then Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Refinery Jetty, Ijala, Warri, Delta state, polluted and damaged their creeks, farmlands, fishponds, sources of drinking water, sacred grounds, aquatic lives and mangrove vegetation.
The communities and groups impacted by the spill are in Warri South, Warri South-West, and Udu Local Government Areas in Delta State.
Saturday Vanguard gathered that the consultant estate surveyors and valuers, Paul Osaji and Company, later on engaged by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, quantified the damage caused the communities and groups at N28, 332, 268, 895.19.
However, NPSCL, then Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, has, mostly, overlooked the letter, even when the Director General of NOSDRA wrote to a letter of compliance; reference No, NOSDRA/OFA/211/Vol 1/30, dated June 16, 2020, to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.
