The Bonga 2011 oil spill from an offshore oil field operated by Shell Nigeria Production and Exploration Company, SNEPCO, affected 168,000 victims in 350 communities in Delta and Bayelsa states.
Chief Howells Levi, paramount ruler of Olobia community in Koluama, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, said in Yenagoa that the oil spill victims were fishermen ordered by oil industry regulators to withdraw from fishing activities to avoid catching contaminated fish.
He lamented that the fishermen, who were deprived of their livelihood while the oil spill response and cleanup activities lasted, deserved to be compensated for the loss of their income.
Levi said the just concluded verification of claims of impacted people revealed that six local government areas along the Atlantic coastline in Delta and Bayelsa states were negatively affected by the incident.
“The Bonga spill incident elicited a lot of claims many of which were frivolous. Initially more than 2,000 communities inundated Shell asking for compensation, but when we appointed attorneys and conducted a verification exercise it was streamlined and we found out that 168,000 persons in 350 communities suffered the negative impact of the spill.
“The impacted local government areas are Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw and Brass in Brass while Warri North, Warri South and Burutu in Delta and each of the councils had about 28,000 victims,” he said.
The royal father explained that the coastal settlements affected by the Bonga spill in Delta and Bayelsa states resolved to set up a Spill Impact Verification Committee to fashion out a framework for compensation by SNEPCO.
He added that the victims were scrutinised to ensure that only fishermen who reside along the Atlantic coastline were verified and each person was made to depose to an affidavit.
“The purpose was to verify the claims before they are submitted to SNEPCO for payment because we do not want people with frivolous and unsubstantiated claims to endanger the case of genuine victims,” Levi said.
It will be recalled that an operational error at SNEPCO in 2011 led to the discharge of 40,000 barrels of oil into the Atlantic Ocean.
The House of Representatives and National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, had in December 2014 recommended a compensation of $3.96 billion for victims of the incident. Agency report
