Okrika gas leakage: We want the pipes buried – Residents cry out · Say it’s a time bomb

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

“He limps till today. It happened in 1993. We were in Junior Secondary School, Form III and we used to play on the surface pipelines because we didn’t know the danger it posed to our lives. Then, one day, one of my friends, Patrick Solomon Ogoh slipped and his right leg was stuck in between the gas pipes. Unfortunately, that was when the refinery was pumping gas, so the pipes were pressured and they expanded and squeezed Patrick’s left leg in the process. The hotness of the pipes due to the gas pressure burnt the flesh on the leg until it got to the bone. He cried for help but before the company could get information, the damage had been done. Today, Patrick, a 35-year-old man limps and bears unquenchable anger against the Port Harcourt Refinery Company (PHCR), a subsidiary of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), whose property the pipelines are, for his fate and for not caring about him ever since the incident some 20 years ago.” That was Sunny Agbani’s description of how the gas pipeline that traversed Ibulya Ama community in Okrika land, disabled one of his secondary school mates in 1993.

For the people of Ibuluya Ama, Koniju Town, Okrika in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State, February 9, 2013 will never be forgotten in a hurry. It will remain fresh in their memory as a black day in the annals of the ancient community not because what happened on that fateful day never happened before but because it was the worst of its kind. It was the day the entire community was engulfed by poisonous gas resulting from the PHRC gas pipelines leakage.

The PHRC pipelines which started from the Pipelines Product Marketing Company (PPMC) Area Office, along Jetty Road in Okrika and ended at Okari Jetty, traversed through various communities in Okrika land including Ibuluya Ama. The pipes run in between the road leading to the Jetty and people’s residential houses along the road.

When our correspondent visited Ibuluya Ama community on Sunday, March 24, the dust of what happened on February 9, had not settled as people still recounted the incident with much anger and frustration. Checks revealed that for three days, the community was in disarray; many people abandoned the community for neighbouring town just to avert the danger imposed on the community by the poisonous gas that pervaded the entire atmospheric air in the community. Many people were hospitalised and so many others are still recuperating from the incident. Looking at the pipes, one is right to agree with the community that they are old and ruptured and need to be replaced to avert future occurrence with its attendant dangers.

Investigation revealed that some pipes that were brought to change the old ones since 2004 after the fire incident are still lying fallow there. The pipes have started rusting as you can see from the picture. Some executive members of the Community Development Committee as well as the Ibuluya Youth Association who took our correspondent to look at the pipes drew attention to some of the pipes that could burst any moment. Some are patched where they earlier leaked and the community is afraid that if heavy and strong object, like stone is thrown at those points by children playing around, they could burst.

They said their aquatic life had been destroyed completely since they no longer eat good fish. “Our aquatic life is completely destroyed; when you open the belly of a fish, you will get a kind of smell that is not fit for human consumption. They are all poisoned; the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we eat are all poisoned; so just look at that kind of situation we are passing through,” they chorused.

They lamented that apart from the health hazard they had suffered in the past gas leakages, they had also starved during the period. They said whenever there was gas leakage; nobody in the community would cook until the atmosphere was cleared of the gas to avoid setting the whole community ablaze. In such periods, they had existed only by eating gala, bread, mineral water and sachet water.

Although, there are insinuations in some quarters that the pipes were there before the people went and built their houses, the Ibuluya Ama people deflated this argument when they told our reporter that the community was before the pipes. They said the pipes were constructed in 1963 and commissioned in 1975 by the NNPC and the community has existed for centuries. To justify their claim, they took our correspondent to the oldest man in the community who is alleged to be 105 years old. When our correspondent met the man, Mr Oyika Tubonemi, he looked so frail and feeble; he could not talk but he managed to ask who was around as he could not see. His 95-year-old wife, Nnene Oyika, who managed to utter few words, complained that ever since the gas leakage, her vision had been badly affected. To further put the record straight, they said Okrika Grammar School was built in 1940, arguing that if the school was built in 1940, it then means that there were people in that community for which the school was built. They insisted that nobody has any justification to say that the pipes were there before the people came to live or build houses

Tracing the genesis of gas explosion and leakage since the pipelines were constructed and commissioned for operation, the CDC Secretary, Dagogo Spencer Otta, who spoke on behalf of the community, said: “As a community, we have experienced different types of gas leakages at different times. This is not the first leakage; we had the first gas leakage in 1987 at the front of state school Ibuluya Ama. It raged for three days and the entire community was displaced. When I say displaced, I mean that nobody cooked within the three days. Before you cooked; you had to go to the neighbouring communities. Most of us who are used to bathing with hot water never tried to boil water during the period because we could not lit our stove as the gas was everywhere in the air. Any attempt to put light on your stove could set the whole community ablaze, so nobody dared to. We engaged all the town criers to go round and warn everybody against trying to cook. We ate garri, bread and groundnut and that was what sustained us for the three days that the incident lasted.

“Another one happened in 1989 at the front of St Silas Christ Church, Ibuluya Ama, the entrance to the Jetty road. That one lasted for more than one week before the PHRC management was able to control the situation. These are not as a result of vandalism; they are a result of ruptured pipes. The pipes are too old and I can say that lack of maintenance has also contributed to these ruptures. In September last year another one happened in front of Engr Asuka Chukuibi and Elder John Ama. In that incident, over 100 persons were hospitalised and the management of the company was aware of that.”

They are also angry that whenever a leakage occurs, the community is left to fend for itself. Decrying the nonchalant attitude of both the company and government towards their plight, the CDC Scribe said: “The hospital bill for the September incident was put at over N6m and it has been submitted to the NNPC but as we speak, nothing has been done about that. What the company did was that 30 bags of rice, 20 cartons of Bournvita and about 15 cartons of sugar were given to the entire Ibuluya Ama community. It was an insult on the community and it even brought a lot of confusion; we didn’t want to accept them because how can they send only 30 bags of rice to a community of over 5000 persons as a relief material? And apart from that, there has not been any other assistance, even though we negotiated with them; as we speak now, nothing has been done. We are not happy.”

Although, they maintained that they were law-abiding citizens of Nigeria who wouldn’t want to take laws into their hands, they warned that continued neglect and abandonment of the community by the authorities concerned, could be disastrous. To demonstrate what they are capable of doing when their patience runs out, they narrated how their intended violent mass action against the company forced it to provide the earlier stated 30 bags of rice. “There was a time we got hint that the Minister of Petroleum would visit the Jetty; honestly as youths in this community, we are law-abiding but since the Refinery Management said our lives were no longer important to them, we wanted to block the road then, just to tell them that our lives are more important than their oil. That Minister wouldn’t have gone into the Jetty. They knew our plans because they brought Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and other security agents to forestall any break down of law and order. That was when they even reluctantly brought the 30 bags of rice, 20 cartons of Bournvita and about 15 cartons of sugar to the entire Ibuluya Ama community,” they said.

Community’s demand

In a situation such as the Ibuluya Ama community has found itself, it is not unusual for the community to make demands from the company that own the pipes, which have caused so much havoc on the people’s lives. For the people of Ibuluya Ama, the first thing they want to be done is to see that the surface pipelines are buried underground to put paid to incessant leakage or explosion. They believe that when that is done, it would minimize the impact whenever there is leakage and the frequency will also be greatly minimized. They believe that its surface nature exposes it to intense heat from the direct sunshine, which in turn has the capacity to cause leakage since most pipes are ruptured.

Reeling out their demands, Dagogo said: “We want them to bury these pipes 20 feet underground; we don’t need their money when they do that. As you can see, the pipes are on the surface and so, they are like time bomb; they are serious threats to the community. At any given time, they can explode. Do you know what could have happened if the last explosion in 2004 was in the night? The whole community would have been erased but thank God it was in the afternoon and the community used the town criers and other persons to avert the disaster that would have occurred. So, what we want the company to do is to bury the pipes so that we will no longer experience these leakages or explosion.

“As a host community where such gigantic federal government project traversed, we have not benefitted in any way since 1965 when the pipes were commissioned till date. The only thing the company has done for us is sinking of bore hole which has even spoilt. It was sunk about nine years ago. Our youths don’t get scholarship from the company; our youths don’t get employment in the company. You can only see people from other parts of the country and not Okrika people working there. We want our people to get scholarship from the company and also to be given jobs, where they are qualified.”

Victims react

Although, only two persons, Mrs Helen John Ama and Mr Mathias John Ama were reported to have been hospitalised after the February incident, investigation revealed that almost every member of the community was affected in one way or the other. Our correspondent’s visit to the community was a great opportunity for some of them who were affected to speak out on what they went through.

Checks revealed that even the unborn babies were affected; a development that was corroborated when a nursing mother, Mrs Tamuno Tonye Itekena, who was pregnant when the September 2012 leakage occurred, poured out her heart. She said: “The first one that happened in September 2012 affected me badly and that was when I was still pregnant with this my baby. The second one is this last one on February 9, but then I have given birth to the baby. It was heavier than the first one. It affected my baby too. I was down with catarrh, cough, chest pain and hotness of the stomach. When I took the baby to the hospital, the doctor told me that it was the effect of the gas leakage and that so many other people had visited the hospital before me. He prescribed some drugs for me and asked me to go home. I visited the hospital once daily for three days. That I am recuperating now is by the grace of God and not because of the drugs. So, my brother we are begging and pleading; it is not by our grace but by the grace of God that we all live here on earth. Nobody is asking to live here forever but the way you preserve your life determines how long you will live. Government should be made to know that people, human beings live around this place; we need government’s assistance.” 

Also speaking about the leakage, a health worker, Felicia Epeya said: “It was difficult to sleep; it was just as if the pipes leaked inside our hearts. We couldn’t breathe; most times, I would leave my home for a neighbouring community because of the odour. I am a health worker; I work at Jombo Clinic and that was an advantage for me. If not for where I work, it would have been terrible for me but I would go to the hospital and take drugs. It was very bad and no government or even the oil company management ever gave us a dime since the incident; we have been spending our money on treatment. So, the authorities concerned should do something urgently to assist us. We are pleading.

For the youth vice president, Alex Apolos, the company is playing with fire and it is only a matter of time before the fire begins to blaze. Speaking in fury-filled voice, he said: “We are only respecting our elders and the CDC executives. Left for the youths; we want to carry out violent operations. We want to damage some things from the refinery but the elders and CDC executives wouldn’t allow us; they said we should relax. The refinery is hurting the community. Personally, I was affected. Inside of me was hot; my breathing was faster than usual and I was coughing ceaselessly without bringing out anything. It was a doctor in this community, Dr Melford who treated me and so many other persons who were also affected. I don’t know how much the medical bill was because the community paid for it but I was told the money was much. The company should make haste while the sun shines; those pipes must be buried; that is our collective demand.”

For 35-year-old Mathias John Ama, whose case was widely reported in the papers, it was close to death. Speaking about his experience and his feeling about the pipelines, he said: “I live very close to the area where the leakage occurred. We just woke up one morning and felt like we were about to collapse because our breath was suspending; we had difficulty breathing. It affected my lungs and chest; I relapsed into coma together with my mother. We were rushed to a Specialist Hospital where we were revived. We started responding to treatment after three days in coma. We spent over two weeks in the hospital and as we speak, no help has come from the company or the government; nobody has deemed it fit to even come and know how we are faring since the incident that almost consumed my life and that of my mother. It was the community leaders and some relations that paid the hospital bills, which I learnt was almost N1m. My entire household was affected but my mother and I was most affected.”

He also commented on the raging controversy on whether the community is older than the pipelines or the other way round. He said: “Our house has been here before the gas line; there were other lines but there wasn’t a gas line. The gas line was commissioned in the 80s or 90s; there was no gas line when we started living here. So, it was a new development. In the beginning, we had the AGO, DPK, PMS, RMS and the black oil. And it is the gas that always leaks. It was only once that the PMS line ruptured and we had fire incident but that was in 2004. As we speak, the refinery has not done anything regarding that fire.”

For Mrs Helen John, Mathias mother, she could only thank God for sparing her life, even as she pleaded with the government to come to their aid. Speaking of her experience, she said: “It affected my brains; I couldn’t sleep at night and I was always feeling tired. I spent weeks in the hospital before I was discharged but I feel better now. The company didn’t bring kobo for my medical bill; it was the community that paid the bill. I thank God that I am alive today and I want the government to help us. They should find solution to the problem; it is becoming too much.”

 When our correspondent met a retired civil servant, Mr Fuayefika, who is still recovering from the effect of the leakage, he also poured out his hearts. He condemned the attitude of the company to the community and called on the management of the company as well as the government to do the needful, in order to avoid future occurrence.

He said: “This gas explosion as I would like to call it has caused a lot of damage in our health in terms of the water we drink and the air we breathe; they are always polluted. This has been a constant problem facing us as a people. We cannot stop the operations of the NNPC but we are asking them to find solution for us because we are suffering. We need to be rehabilitated by the government; by that I mean the water is polluted; we have air pollution and we also live in fear because gas is inflammable and nobody can predict what will happen the next time or next moment. The pipes are old and ruptured because no attention is given and that has been the cause of the constant leakage.

“Government knows how best to address the situation; we are the host community and we are not benefitting from the government and they know the type of operation they carry out here. They know how injurious it is to human health if these leakages are allowed to continue. We want government to give us medical attention; potable water and to also compensate us for our sufferings as one of the pipeline bearing communities. We need to be adequately cared for; in terms of scholarship awards, they should consider our children because that will also elevate our standard of living. They will in turn join the government and address the issues we are facing.

“Definitely, the pipes should be buried because I have seen in some places where these pipes are buried; they are not exposed to this kind of hazard. This last leakage, if we are to talk about it, we starved ourselves because if you were in the spot, you would notice that even the security operatives were fully involved. They stopped vehicles from going to the Jetty; movement of motorcycles were restricted because the situation was very tense. Besides, government knows the life span of the pipes; so they don’t need anybody to remind them when to change them. Even if they are buried and no attention is given to them, we will still suffer the same problem we are talking about.

“The whole of my family was affected because we all rely on air to live. When toxic was dumped at Kiri Canal side, we couldn’t breathe well because the stench was spread through the entire community. It has been a regular problem we are facing. I want the government to look into our health condition based on the polluted water, the bad air we breathe in and how aquatic life has been paralysed. They should look for a way of helping us by what I may call incentive or external hands of fellowship to make us feel that we belong to the pipeline communities. They should also consider giving our children employment because they have graduated from school for some years without any job. At the same time, they should give scholarship to our children because we also serve as security for government; we secure these pipes so as to avoid the community being put in danger.”

When our correspondent went to the PHCR on Monday, March 25, for clarifications on some of the allegations against it by the community, he was denied access into the company on the ground that he didn’t have any previous appointment. All his efforts to explain his mission and why he should be allowed in to see the Public Affairs Manager fell on deaf ears as he was alternatively advised to repeat his mission the next day, which was a visiting day.

On Tuesday, March 26, by quarter past nine in the morning, our correspondent was at the gate, but he was again denied access into the company. This time, he was told that the official visiting hour starts from 11:00am. When he finally gained entrance and got to the office of the Public Affairs Manager by few minutes past 11:00am, he was told by the secretary that the manager was away in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja to attend a crucial meeting and his assistant was also not on seat. He asked for the phone number of either of the two officials but the secretary said she had no right to do that. He tried to make her understand that since the officers in question serve as the image maker of the company, their phone numbers should not be a secret thing especially to the media, but she remained adamant. It was when our correspondent told her the implication of all that transpired and was leaving the office that she called him back and asked him to wait for the Assistant Public Affairs Manager if he could, since he would likely come back to the office that day.

But, while our correspondent was seated in the office before the Public Affairs Manager’s office where he was asked to wait, a middle-aged woman came in after about two hours and asked who the correspondent was and who he was waiting for. When our correspondent identified himself and his mission, the woman was understandably angry and unease and said the assistant would not come back. She said our correspondent needed not to have come to their office since the company did not invite him for any story. She told our correspondent that he should go ahead and write whatever the community has told him and that the company would respond when the story comes out. But our correspondent quickly told her that doing so was against the ethics of his job as he needed to hear from the company in order to come up with a balanced report. At this point, she informed our correspondent that the company has its own media team that handles whatever thing that concerns the company. She finally told our correspondent that he was wasting his time as neither the public affairs manager nor his assistant would even speak to him if they were around because he would need to apply first to the Group Managing Director, Public Affairs in Abuja, who would give orders before anybody would talk to him.