The Rivers State House of Assembly has condemned the persistent oil spills within the state as a result of oil pollution and exploration by multinational companies operating in Rivers State.
They also condemned the slow response of the multinational companies whenever the spills occur.
The resolution came after the Adhoc committee on investigation of the Aleto Crude oil spillage and the call for intervention by the House presented its report, Wednesday, on the floor of the Assembly.
The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Martin Amaewhule, in his submission at the end of the presentation, emphasized that environmental degradation will impact negatively on the people and called on Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to sit up.
Rt. Hon. Amaewhule decried the continuous degradation of the environment by SPDC as a result of its exploration activities, while stressing that the Assembly will not allow Rivers people suffer because of the nonchalant attitude of any company.
He used the opportunity to commend the committee for a thorough report, noting that the committee, even before turning in their report, ensured that they mediated between SPDC and the communities.
The Speaker also said one of the major achievement of the committee is that they got SPDC to commence repair work immediately while other issues are being considered.
Presenting the report earlier, the Chairman of the Adhoc Committee, Dumle Mao, said the committee found out among other things that there is a massive and devastating crude oil spillage on Shell Petroleum Development company twenty eight Trans-Niger pipeline (TNT) Right of way, Eleme zone 2.
They also found out that the pipe line is not on the ground surface but buried five ft underground, that a joint investigation has been completed, SPDC has been given access to the incident site and there is no security breach.
According to the report, SPDC has sent relief materials to the affected areas
The committee, however, recommend that SPDC should immediately commence the clean up of and remediation of the affected and impacted communities in line with the provision of the extant laws.
They also recommended that SPDC should continue to engage with the affected and impacted communities on other benefits associated with the oil spillage and to keep to their agreement .
The committee however was further mandated by the Assembly to monitor progress of work by SPDC and ensure they keep to their agreement.
It would be recalled that the Oil Spillage affected the Eleme Communities of Aleto, Agbonchia, Akpajo, Okerewa and Njuru.
It has also spread through the waterways fom Aleto (Eleme) to Elelenwo (Obio/Akpor), Mbaka-Ama and Okujagu-Ama (Okrika), all boundary coastlines.
