Ijegun-Imore residents demand compensation over pipeline rupture

(Nigeria) Some residents of Ijegun-Imore, a suburb of Lagos, on Tuesday demanded compensation from the  Pipeline Products and Marketing Company, PPMC, for  damages they incurred following the ruptured oil pipeline in the area.

They told the News Agency of Nigeria in separate interviews in Lagos that the oil spill in the community was caused by negligence to monitor the pipeline network by the agency.

The oil spill, which was caused by ruptured pipeline, occurred on January 26, at Ijegun-Imore near Navy Town in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State.

A traditional leader, Mr Nurudeen Olu-Fatunbi, said that PPMC should compensate residents of the community for not repairing the ruptured pipeline for more than a year.

Olu-Fatunbi said that the community had reported the incidence to PPMC without any response.

According to him, there is the need for government to embark on total clean up of the community because "we don’t want to lose our valuable items. The spill had caused economic hardship to the people of the area.

“We are pleading with the company to urgently take steps to clean-up the spill and send relief materials to us,” he said.

Another resident, Mr Sunny Onotor, a former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC staff, said that there was the need for management of PPMC to ensure prompt monitoring of its pipeline network to curb incessant vandalism.

Onotor also advised PPMC to provide dedicated phone lines to all host communities where they had pipeline network channels for prompt attention during issues surrounding its operations.

“Government needs to compensate us over their negligence to protect their pipelines; our community has been polluted due to the spillage.

“Majority of residents have vacated the community due to ongoing pollution of the environment and hazardous nature of oil spill to human health,’’ he said.

He said that the residents expressed fears over possible explosion in the area due to the oil spill.

Mrs Ijeoma Ifeayinwa, a banker, said that NNPC and its subsidiary should be blamed over oil spill in the area, adding that the community had raised the alarm over the spill over a year ago, but to no avail.

 Ifeanyinwe said that the situation worsened on Jan. 25 night when the residents observed petrol flow from the ruptured pipelines.

“We urgently alerted the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA and the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA about the situation.

“Some of us ran out that night to sleep before the agencies came to our rescue the next day. We appeal to government to find a way of compensating us and ensure total clean-up of the area,’’ he said.

The Manager, Public Affairs and External Relations of Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, Mr Nasir Imodagbe said that the ruptured pipeline was an act of vandalism.

Imodagbe said that the agency would not pay any compensation to any community which was supposed to assist government in protecting pipelines against vandalism,  but was rather conniving with vandals.

“As I speak with you, our men are seriously excavating the place to bring out the vandalised pipeline and commence repair.

“The same point was repaired in 2010 and we had to change the entire pipeline to new one which is expected to be intact by now,’’ he said.