On Wednesday, January 17. 2024, a Pipeline which, belongs to Nigerian AGIP Oil Company exploded and went up in flames, at Obagi in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, ONELGA of Rivers State, distributing fire into community farmlands and bushes. The magnitude of the fire and the noise associated with it, caused great panic and pandemonium in the community and forced residents to desert Obagi.
Community members said they noticed the fire around 8 pm on that fateful day. The fire was accompanied by a great noise and houses were vibrating as if there was an earth tremor. “The thing was so enormous; even the noise alone from that place. I went there myself and I saw it on the spot. I could not get closer because if there was any spark, so many lives would be lost”, said Hon Vincent Job, chairman of ONELGA.
Although no casualty was recorded, the fire was so massive and aggressive that community members were forced to flee the community. They ran to neighbouring communities where they slept that night.
“There was a fire incident in our community, We had a great noise, the eruption was escalated, there was vibration”, the Community Development Committee, CDC chairman of Obagi, Comrade Elechi Ifeanyi recounted to this publication.
A royal father, Eze Clinton Elemele, Eze Ohugbani 1 of Ogbaland said: “There was fire everywhere. The ground and houses started shaking and people started running out of their homes. I was at home that day when it happened”. According to him, there could have been many casualties if people did not desert the community.
The fire ravaged a large expanse of cultivated farmlands, destroying food crops like cassava, as well as economic trees such as palm trees. Community sources disclosed that when AGIP was first contacted following the fire disaster, the company initially refused to come, claiming it was an act of sabotage. The fire raged on throughout that night and continued the following day, until it was successfully quenched on Thursday, the second day, by Agip when its people visited the site in the company of many community members and the local government chairman, Hon. Vincent Job.
Although the cause of the fire outbreak is yet to be ascertained, a community member, Morgan Destiny, told this publication that the fire outbreak was a disaster foretold. According to him, the pipeline where the fire started has been leaking and discharging inflammable gas into the atmosphere since June last year, 2023. Efforts made by the community to bring Agip into the community to stop the leakage proved abortive as the company remained unconcerned. Initially, AGIP disowned the facility, saying that it was not theirs. It took the intervention of the regulatory body, NOSDRA for AGIP to agree that the pipeline, a 24-inches chain-pipeline which transports gas from AGIP flow Station in Obagi (Obagi-Idu) through Obirikom belongs to them.
Even after accepting that the ruptured pipeline belongs to the company, they still refused to come and stop the leakage, claiming that it was an act of sabotage, said Morgan. However, community members insisted that the fire was as a result of equipment failure, adding that the pipelines were too old and needed to be replaced. The gas continued to leak unabated until it eventually went up in flames.
It was gathered that when AGIP, in the company of the LGA chairman entered the community to quench the fire, community members insisted that AGIP should pay compensation to them for the damages and trauma brought on them by the company. A meeting was fixed between the company and the community at the council chairman’s office in Omoku to discuss the compensation and other related issues.
However, on the day of the meeting, being Friday, January 19, while community members gathered at Omoku for the meeting, AGIP, shielded by battle-ready armed soldiers, sneaked into the site of the incident at Obagi to cover the ruptured pipeline. The soldiers cordoned off the area and prevented community members from entering the area until Agip concluded its activity at the site. When community leaders confronted AGIP over the actions of the soldiers who stopped them at gun point from entering their land, AGIP claimed that they went there to conduct a Joint Investigation Venture, JIV visit.
Community members were enraged by the actions of AGIP, and the use of soldiers to intimidate them, saying that it was very provocative. They lamented that AGIP has made their community a hell, and demanded that AGIP should pay compensation to them for the damage suffered as a result of the fire and gas leakages. They further demanded that the community members should be relocated to another place as their community is no longer safe for human habitation as a result of AGIP operations.
Community Voices:
What Agip Is Doing In Our Land Is Not Good -Chief Anthony Chinasa Brown
My name is Chief Anthony Chinasa Brown. I am the landlord of this place; this land is called Udeta farmland. Right from when they acquired it till now, it has been series of problems from the flow station, from one problem to another. Even at the flow station, Obagi people are landlords of the flow station but AGIP has not treated us as their landlords even for one day. The roads we are using, which AGIP is also using to come and drill oil here, were constructed by Total. Agip has been so backwards in their relationship with our community.
We have never seen any project we can lay hands on and say, this is the project AGIP has done for Obagi, or even for us, the Umuokoko, which is a sub-family to Umuachi; no any project, nothing! Even the MOU we had with them, the Obagi community had with them, they have left that MOU; they have not reviewed it for the past 15 years.
We are calling on the government to call AGIP to order. If the fire had continued for few days more, the thing could have burned down the whole community. You can see the economic trees, the palm trees have been destroyed. Look at what has happened to them!
We are begging the federal government, the state and the local governments to call AGIP to order; to tell them that whatever operation they are doing here, there should be proper EIA; and they should compensate us for all these things- the damages they have caused here, for the destruction done on our farmland, aquatic lives and so many other things.
Agip will not give compensation; they will spoil your things, they will use soldiers to intimidate us, they use Army, just like what was witnessed here today. They use soldiers in everything they do, intimidating the people, intimidating the landlords, the youths. We are calling on Tinubu and the governor, Sim Fubara to call AGIP Oil Company to order. What Agip is doing in our land is not good. The government should come to our aid.
We Heard A Great Noise, There Was Vibration- CDC Chairman
My name is Comrade Elechi Ifeanyi, the CDC chairman of Obagi. We are here in Obagi Community, an area affected by equipment failure of AGIP facility that resulted to gas eruption since June last year. It has been eight months now this eruption has occurred. By eruption, I mean explosion caused by gas leakage. There was serious explosion here around June last year (10th of June). We went to Agip and LNG as well because at the initial time, we did not discover the owners of the pipeline. AGIP denied and said it is not their pipeline. LNG also denied. At a point, we took steps and reported the case to NODSRA and they came here and found out that there was actually gas leakage in this place we are standing now.
NODSRA invited the two of them, AGIP and LNG, which warranted a joint visit to this site. It was at that point, that is, during the joint visit, that AGIP accepted that the leaking pipeline is their own. It was around August. They made their report and mandated Agip to immediately remediate. But since that time, Agip has been having one excuse or the other without coming to do anything here to stop the leakage until day before yesterday, (January 17,2024, Wednesday) there was a fire incident. Where the fire came from, we do not know. We heard a great noise, the eruption was escalated; there was vibration.
We must not remove the fact that for that eight months, there was continuous serious remittance-, release of gas into the environment. Our roofs, zinc, aquatic lives, our health, economic trees, farmlands, have been affected seriously. What we want now is that we want to show the whole world that right from the inception of Agip operation in Obagi, they have not been good in community relation. You cannot see the presence of Agip in Obagi today in terms of community projects.
This thing that happened now is an eye-opener. It also happened in 2010 at the flowstation. Up till now, nothing has been done. They claim they have done their clean up. Today, January 19, 2024, they have come with the same tactics. From what we have observed today, they have covered the place. But the point is that there should be remedy for all the damages our people have suffered. We are asking for compensation. We are also calling on the government – the local government, state, federal and all agencies, to come to our aid so that something should be done. Even if it requires relocating the whole inhabitants of Obagi, so be it. We are like people in hell fire. You can also see the thick smoke right now coming from their flowstation. We have been inhaling polluted air and this thing has been happening for many years.
Question: There is an allegation that some of your youths vandalized the pipeline. How will you respond to that?
Anybody that is saying that is not on the truthful side. Obagi has been known to be a peaceful place; and our youths are hard working. You can’t experience any bunkering activity or pipeline vandalization in Obagi community; we have not even when they have surface pipelines, they have underground pipes. We are surrounded by pipelines, both surface and underground. We have not heard of such thing. Even when we are hearing about bunkering, Obagi man has not indulged in any bunkering business.
There Was Fire Everywhere – Eze Clinton Elemele
I am Eze Clinton Elemele, Eze Ohugbani 1 of Ogbaland. I am from Ogbagi Community, in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA of Rivers State, Nigeria. It has been a long standing problem; this thing started by June last year, 2023. The major pipeline of Nigerian Agip Oil Company started leaking. We told them to go and stop the leakages. After they came to the site and said it was not their pipeline after their inspections, we went to LNG and LNG came for inspection and said it was not their pipelines after inspection. At the end of the day, after several months, these leakages have been there, on Tuesday, January 17, the leakages became very wide and suddenly, went up in flames. There was fire everywhere. The ground and houses started shaking and people started running out of their homes. I was at home that day. I started making calls. On the following morning, Agip came and that was when they told us that the pipeline was their own. Now, they have stopped the leakage and the fire.
Last night, we slept without problems any more. That was what happened in Obagi. It was a big disaster. The ground and the houses were shaking. It was a major line of Agip.
What caused the fire?
I don’t know. It was an equipment failure. They have not conducted JIV. If there is any JIV, I am not aware. Nobody has told me that they have conducted JIV.
What do you think needs to be done to prevent these explosions?
That is left to the company that owns the pipelines. They should know what to do to make sure the pipelines are safe. They should boost security; they should work with the landlords, the owners of the land. The landlords are supposed to be pampered; I expect the oil companies to work with the landlords very well, to come close to them, so that all these problems will not be coming up.
With the leakage of gas in the community, life has been very tough for the people living here. Very rough, the air is polluted, we don’t breath good air; our water is bad; everything we have is bad. It gives us hypertension; it is a silent killer; small thing, your mind flies away. They are causing a lot of problems for us.
I want the government, federal government, to come down and work with community leaders like us; if they work with people like us, everywhere and everything will be okay.
Our planned meeting with the Agip Oil Company at the LGA secretariat has been rescheduled to next mee ting due to the absence of the company. We want to sit with Agip so that they will tell us what happened. During the fire incident, crops and other things on the farmland were destroyed. But our people were very careful; immediately it happened, everybody ran away from their homes; everybody slept outside the community. People ran to neighbouring communities, otherwise, there would have been casualties.