An environmental rights activist, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, has warned against linking the recent explosion in the Trans-Niger Delta Pipeline at Bodo, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, to the ongoing political crisis in the state.
Speaking in an interview with Media Talk Africa, Fyneface, who is the Executive Director of the Youth and Environmental Advocacy Center, YEAC, attributed the explosion to equipment failure rather than political unrest.
He specifically pointed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Shell, which operate the pipeline, as being responsible for maintaining the aging infrastructure.
According to Fyneface, these pipelines have been laid for over sixty years, and as a result, “they are bursting and deflating like balloons when there is heavy pressure transporting crude oil to the export terminal in Bonny.”
He dismissed speculations that the explosion was linked to threats by some youths to sabotage pipelines in the region over ethnic tensions arising from the political crisis in Rivers State, emphasized that Ogoniland does not belong to either the Ikwerre or Ijaw ethnic nationalities, which have been at the center of the dispute.
Fyneface further stated that the cause of the explosion, whether due to equipment failure or sabotage, would be determined by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA.
He also highlighted the frequency of oil spills and pipeline explosions in the Niger Delta, describing them as a “regular occurrence.”
“Any week or month that passes without these two occurrences is a time for celebration,” he said.
Fyneface warned that more pipeline failures and oil spills are inevitable due to the deteriorating state of existing infrastructure and the ongoing divestment by multinational oil companies.
He added, “A lot of these things have been happening, and more are still going to happen because a lot of these pipelines are already bad, already weak. And divestment is going on, where the multinational oil companies are handing over these facilities to indigenous companies who even lack the technological capacity and finances to run them.
“So, we are going to have more explosions of this nature, more equipment failures of this nature, and more oil spills in the future because the system has not been maintained the way it ought to be.”
