Oil Fire Scares Voters In Bayelsa

Oil Fire Scares Voters In Bayelsa

A SEEMING hellish oil fire from a facility suspected to be belonging to Agip, an Italian oil major operating in Bayelsa State, allegedly scared away many voters from Okoroba community from turning up to cast their votes.

An environmental field monitor with Environmental Rights Action (ERA) told AkanimoReports on telephone yesterday that his organisation at about 8:00 pm on Friday, received a Save Our Souls (SOS) from Okoroba community in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa about a fresh oil spill and fire that was raging along Ogoda-Brass Pipeline.

''We reached out to other community folks on the matter immediately after the call to obtain more information and confirmed early this Saturday morning that the fire is still raging and that interested voters are scared to go out and cast their votes'', the ERA operative said.

A senior ERA official in the state, Moris Alagoa, while confirming the development, added, ''information at our disposal indicates the spill and fire was discovered by commercial motor cycle operators who were leaving the community''.

As at around 3.02pm, a correspondentof AkanimoReports in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital, learnt the fire was yet to halt the blaze and has only lowered the pressure of the crude oil along the pipeline.

Community folks whose farmlands are being ravaged by the blaze suspect that the spill must have been caused by agents of the oil company.

Community folks, Gift Douglas and Hitler Adumoin, told ERA that the spill/fire site is very close to the community; at a section of the pipeline referred to as Checking or Testing point.

The restriction of movement occasioned by ongoing elections to the National Assembly has made it impossible for ERA monitors to reach the community. ENDS

ENDS

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