By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku
Rights group, the Africa Network for Environment & Economic Justice (ANEEJ), has called for an independent verification of the claims made by Sharon Ikeazor, Hon Minister of State for Environment, that recent SEPCOL oil field fire in the Niger Delta has been contained, and an evacuation had taken place.
A press release titled SEPCOL’s Oil Field Fire Extinguished, Evacuation Operation Launched—Ikeazor, and circulated by Ministry of the Environment said that the fire incident at Ukpokiti Oil Field was eventually contained on the evening of Thursday, February 3, 2022.
“While the cause of the fire incident is yet to be fully determined, the environment around the FPSO is only slightly covered by sheen and emulsified oil. It was earlier reported that the approximate quantity of oil in the FPSO in the recent past was said to be a little less than 200 000 barrels.
“One of the operators utilizing the services provided by the FPSO was said to have made an Off take of approximate 120,000 barrels before the incident; leaving an estimated 50-60 000 barrels in the FPSO as at the time of the fire incident,” the statement read.
Even though the statement was clear about the efforts of the minister to contain the fire and conduct an evacuation, the statement appeared silent on the number of people killed, injured or evacuated.
Arising from this, there has been a lot of speculations concerning the fatalities from the incident. While an online news portal said that three SEPCOL staff had been found alive while one person had been confirmed to have died, others put the figures of those killed at 10.
Alltimepost.com has reached the environment officials for a confirmation of the numbers but there was no word from them as at the time of filing this report. It was against this background that the ANEEJ executive director, Rev. David Ugolor has made the call for ‘an independent verification’.
“We welcome the effort of the Honourable Minister of the Environment so far. But to validate some of the information pushed ot from the Environment ministry, it will be good to set up an independent verification to ensure that compliance with best practices is assured,” Rev Ugolor told Alltimepost.com.
