JUMADA-AWWAL 7, 1429 A.H.
MONDAY, MAY 13 2008
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Peremabiri community suffers oil spill after attack by armed youths
The Peremabiri community in Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa has suffered an oil spill following last week's attack on the Diebu Flow Station by armed youths.
The community leader, Chief Thankgod Selekeme, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa that the attack on the oil facilities had plunged the community into ``environmental danger and other crisis''.
Armed youths last week attacked the Diebu flow station of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company in Peremabiri community, blowing up the station in the process.
``We are facing hunger in the community now as the spill has left our farmlands devastated and we can no longer go fishing,'' he said.
Selekeme explained that after the attack, the oil company only came to access the level of damage to the flow station and that nobody had come to see what the people were facing.
He rejected suggestions that youths from the area perpetrated the attack and said that ``those who carried out the attack were heavily armed and came in speed boats.''
Selekeme said: ``The community came out of a fratricidal conflict not too long ago and cannot afford the painful ordeal of passing through another bitter experience.''
``We are a peace-loving people, who go about our fishing to eke out a living and we will not support anything that will impact negatively on our means of livelihood,'' he said.
Selekeme appealed to the relevant authorities to come to the aid of the community by finding a solution to the spill for the sake of the environment and health of the people.
