President Umaru Yar�Adua on Wednesday directed the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency to ensure that oil companies were made to pay for spills recorded by them in their areas of operation.
Yar�Adua gave the directive just as our correspondent in Warri gathered that the fire which broke out three weeks ago at the Trans Niger Pipeline in the Niger Delta was yet to be put out.
The President, who spoke after listening to a report by NOSDRA in Abuja on oil spill in the country, said that the negative impact of such incidents demanded that oil companies be penalised.
He advised the agency to liaise with relevant service providers in cleaning up the environment and to team up with other governmental and non-governmental agencies to monitor oil spill in the country.
Earlier, the Director-General of NOSDRA, Dr. Bamidele Ajakaiye, listed contamination of the ground and surface water sources, disruption of balance in the ecosystem, reduction in the economic potential of an affected community, and high cost of remediation of contaminated sites as the implications of oil spill.
Ajakaiye added that the agency�s functions included �surveillance and ensuring compliance with all existing legislation and the detection of oil spills in the petroleum sector.�
He said that the body, which was inaugurated in April, 2007 as a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, was established in 2006 by an Act of the National Assembly.
He informed the President that NOSDRA�s vision was to �create, nurture and sustain a zero-tolerance oil spill incident in the Nigerian environment.�
The NORSDA boss later told journalists that the agency was prepared to ensure that oil companies cleaned up spills or faced stiff penalties.
He said, �Whoever pollutes must pay up. So, there is no way the oil companies can escape. In the clean-up of Ogoniland, it is the person that is responsible for the pollution that will bear the cost.
�The oil companies are represented in our governing board.
�They are one of the stakeholders in this matter. They are fully aware that we can benefit by rubbing minds.�
Meanwhile,the Movement for the Survival Ogoni People has called for an immediate action to stop the fire at the Trans Niger Pipeline.
The movement, therefore, called for an investigation by the Federal Government into the management of pipeline by the Shell Petroleum Development Company.
The MOSOP President, Mr. Ledum Mitee, who spoke with one of our correspondents, blamed the fire on neglect by the management of the SPDC.
Mitee claimed that the SPDC lacked the capacity to operate the pipeline, which carries between 180,000 and 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the Bonny Export Terminal.
He said, �Our people are being subjected to all kinds of environmental terrorism.
�The failure to take a credible action over this unprecedented set of fire tells us that Shell neither cares nor has the capacity to operate this pipeline safely.
�We believe that pipelines are being operated outside the law and if that were to happen in any other country, they would be closed for being flagrantly unsafe.
�The persistent refusal of Shell staff to recognise legitimate community leadership exacerbated the crisis which earlier closed the pipeline and has fed the current criminal behaviour.�
The Information Officer of MOSOP, Mr. Bari Ara Kpalap, said that the fire had spread to Kegbara Dere, Barabyonwa Dere, Bodo and Kpor in Ogoni.
Kpalap, who added that the fire was caused by vandals, lamented that it had polluted farmlands and the sky around the villages located along the pipeline�s right of way.
Kpalap said that five suspected vandals arrested by Kegbara Dere youths and members of a surveillance team were handed over to the police in the area before they were transferred to Port Harcourt.
When contacted, an SPDC spokesman, Mr. Precious Okolobo, said, �There was a fire outbreak at six points along our pipeline in Ogoniland. The pipeline runs through Ogoniland to the Bonny Export Terminal.�
Okolobo added that the SPDC had been unable to put out the fire because �we have not been able to gain access to the site.�
Shell has not operated in Ogoniland since 1995.