AITEO/Nembe Oil Spill: Gov. Diri Bemoans Continuous Oil Spill in Nembe

Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri has decried the continuous oil spill in Santa Barbara river, in Nembe Local Government Area which has lasted over a month.

Speaking with newsmen in Yenagoa when he received a report from a team of government officials and journalists who visited the area on Tuesday, Governor Diri lamented that one week after he visited and got assurances from the company handling the clean up, nothing has changed.

He stated that the health and livelihood of the people have been heavily affected and cautioned against the politicization of the spill, stressing that all hands must be on deck to put a stop to the spill and check future occurrence.

Governor Diri assured that beyond the call for sanctions, his administration will immediately identify experts in relevant fields to evaluate and advise government on the appropriate steps to take.

The state Chief Executive renewed his call to AITEO to stop the spill with immediate effect to save the environment and lives from further and commence remediation exercise which he said should go beyond Nembe given the spread of the oil spill.

His words: "Beyond the call for sanctions, what my administration is going to do is first of all, to identify experts on this, we don't want to work in some assumptions, we want to work on facts, so, we are trying to gather experts, environmental experts, oil pollution experts, legal experts to assess, evaluate and then advise government on the appropriate steps to take.

"First and foremost, we want this unabated gushing of Crude Oil and Gas to the environment stopped. It has been on for over a month, so the very first day I visited there, and even before I visited there, we had made press statements and now, we are still continuing to call on the authorities which includes the Oil Company itself, Aiteo that is responsible to that well of OML 29 and the Federal Government, to please save our environment and lives that will be lost as a result of this Spill. So, our call first, is for them to stop this Spill".

"Following the stoppage, is to ensure the environment remediation and that may not be only for only Nembe. In fact, the whole of Bayelsa, there must be an action plan to ensure the whole environment is also part and parcel of the clean up. There shall be a clean up, just as the Ogoni clean up even though it is yet to commence", Gov. Diri stated".