From Tony John,Port Harcourt
An oil spill has been reported in the Ikata community area in Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The spill is said to have occurred in the early hours of Monday, May 5, 2025, on a 14-inch pipeline right-of-way operated by Renaissance Africa Energy Company Ltd (RAEC).
Daily Sun gathered that the company recently acquired the assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria Ltd in a $2.4billion divestment deal.
The oil spill was confirmed by the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) and reported in a statement in Port Harcourt, signed by its Executive Director, Dr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface.
Fyneface said members of Advocacy Centre’s One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta, as well as those under the auspices of its Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS) in the area, reported the spillage to the Centre.
He added that, the spill point, suspected to be tortious (third-party) interference, is seriously spilling crude oil into the environment and destroying the ecosystem in the surrounding area.
The group also stated that a visit by its volunteers in the area to the spill site on Monday morning showed that the vandals allegedly excavated the ground and vandalised the 14-inch pipe along the Okordia-Rumuekpe pipeline right-of-way which is currently spewing crude oil into the environment, as seen in short videos and photographs shared with the Advocacy Centre.
Advocacy Centre thus called on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to carry out a joint investigation visit (JIV) to the spill site with a view to determining the actual cause of the spill and invoke the relevant section of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, to hold the alleged perpetrators accountable.