One of the major crisis caused by oil exploration is the age long problem of oil spillage. when this happens, the aqua life of the villages or communities affected are usually totally destroyed and the communities are made to suffer untold hardship and hunger. sometimes with very little or no compensations from the oil companies operating in the area. Oil spillage is always dreaded by the locals whose only means of survival are usually farming and fishing. well, recently, the people of Ikara Community in Ikpoba Oka Local Government Area of Edo State sent a Save Our Soul (SOS) message to President Jonathan, following an oil spillage in their community, caused by ruptures in the oil pipe lines of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, which passed through the community.
President General of the community, Mr Lawrence Anirejuoritse Wilbert, and the Chairman of the Elders’ Council, Chief John Eyajamure, who made the made the SOS on behalf of the community also called on the oil company to expedite actions to clean up the area and make adequate compensation to the community, in line with relevant statutory guidelines. Compensation would only alleviate the suffering of the host communities who have lost everything or almost everything to spillage.
They described the spillage as having caused “monumental loss of aquatic, domestic and agricultural lives,” warning that the company must not violate or bye pass the necessary statutory measures in remedying the plight of the people.
One would expect that oil exploration would immediately bring prosperity to the host communities, but this is often not the reality on ground over there. The federal government and the state government should act swiftly in other to save these poor people.