Fresh oil spill wreck havoc In Rivers community, group alleges massive destruction

A fresh oil spill has been reported in the Ikata community in Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State with attendant massive destruction of crops in the surrounding environment. The spill is said to have occurred in the early hours of Monday, May 5, 2025, on a 14-inch pipeline right of way operated by Renaissance Africa Energy Company Ltd (RAEC). Renaissance Africa Energy is the company that is alleged to have recently acquired the assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria Ltd in a $2.4billion divestment deal. The oil spill was confirmed by the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Dr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface and made available to Vanguard.
 Dr.  Fyneface said members of Advocacy Centre’s One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta, as well as those under the auspices of its Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS) in the area, reported the spillage to the Centre. He said that the spill point, suspected to be “a third-party interference, is seriously spilling crude oil into the environment and destroying the ecosystem in the surrounding area”.  The group also stated that a visit by its volunteers in the area to the spill site showed that the vandals allegedly excavated the ground and vandalised the 14-inch pipe along the Okordia-Rumuekpe pipeline right of way which is currently spewing crude oil into the environment. 
Fyneface however called on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to carry out a joint investigation visit (JIV) to the spill site with a view of determining the actual cause of the spill and invoke the relevant section of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, to hold the alleged perpetrators to account.