Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
A prominent Rivers State leader, Alabo Dumo Lulu-Briggs, has called for an immediate and coordinated emergency response to the environmental crisis in the Bille Community.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) governorship candidate in Rivers State, described the situation at Bille as a public safety, public health and livelihood emergency that demands urgent intervention from all relevant authorities.
In a statement issued yesterday, Lulu-Briggs expressed deep concern over the reported environmental hazard affecting the riverine community, stressing that the incident should not be dismissed as merely an environmental complaint.
“The situation in Bille is deeply concerning and must be treated with the urgency, seriousness and humanity it deserves. This is not merely an environmental complaint. It is a public-safety, public-health and livelihood emergency affecting a Rivers community that has long carried the burden of Nigeria’s oil and gas economy,” he said.
He sympathised with affected families, fishermen, women, children and community institutions whose health, water sources, safety and livelihoods may have been impacted, insisting that no resource-producing community should be left in fear or uncertainty while investigations continue.
Lulu-Briggs urged the federal government, Rivers State Government, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Degema Local Government Council, the leadership of Bille Community and relevant operators to immediately establish a coordinated emergency response and source-control mechanism.
According to him, the immediate priorities should include protecting lives, providing clean water and medical assistance, publishing scientific findings in language that the public can easily understand, identifying and stopping the source of the hazard, and ensuring proper environmental remediation and compensation where liability is established.
“This moment calls for transparent science, not speculation; practical relief, not political theatre; and accountability, not delay. The people of Bille deserve to know what has happened, what risks they face, what is being done, and who will take responsibility,” he stated.
Lulu-Briggs further called for the incident to serve as a turning point in addressing the dangers posed by ageing and abandoned oil and gas infrastructure across Rivers State and Nigeria.
The oil magnetwarned that abandoned wells, ageing flowlines, obsolete pumps, pipelines and other oilfield assets should no longer be allowed to pose hidden threats to communities, water bodies, livelihoods and the environment.
While declining to speculate on the technical cause of the incident, he maintained that regulators, scientists and engineers must be allowed to carry out their investigations independently.
“I will not prejudge the technical cause. That is the work of competent regulators, scientists and engineers. But we insist that the people must be protected now, the truth must be established openly, the hazard must be brought under control, and those responsible must meet their obligations to the community,” he said.
He however, called for environmental justice, public safety and responsible stewardship of the nation’s natural resources, insisting that Bille and other host communities must not be left to suffer in silence.