NNPC IS KILLING US: Community cries for help over petrol contaminated water

By Abolaji Adebayo

Fear of death due to drinking contaminated water from boreholes and wells exposed to spillage from pipelines of the Nigerian Petroleum and Pipelines  Marketing Company (PPMC) is gripping the residents around its System 2B pipeline network that passes through Ejigbo in Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area.

PPMC is an arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). It established the depot in Ejigbo in 1982.

The depot supplies petroleum products to South Western states in Nigeria powering businesses, keeping vehicles on the road and smoothening economic and social activities.

The affected streets include Kamoru Street, Sanusi Street, Surprise Avenue, Abuna Street, Tunde Alabi Street, Omi Yale Street, Oboye Street, Kehinde Close, Taiwo Close, Igbehin Adun Street and Tunde Alabi Street.

Alhaji Wahab Olorunfunmi, a 74-year old, is one of the few residents who has surrendered to fate. He told ECHONEWS: “I just boil the water and drink it. My wife and kids buy water, but I drink from the borehole. Even if it will affect my health, how long do I have to live again?”

For younger residents who travel long distance to fetch and buy clean water to stay healthy, the contaminated water not only threatens their lives, it also affects their businesses.

A landlady, Mrs. Mutiat Agbabiaka, whose family sells borehole water said she recently shut down the third borehole when she noticed that the only source of water left has also been contaminated.

She recalls that the family spent N200,000 to  dig a new borehole in October last year when the one they used became contaminated.

This was used to sell water during the coronavirus lockdown, gushing a lot of income for the family. But early his year, it began to smell of fuel and was abandoned. The family raised another N200,000 to dig another borehole and began to sell clean water once again.

Then, it happened: “I started noticing the problem a few days ago. I went to the bathroom to take my bath when I perceived that smell of fuel. Since then, we have been allowing people to come and fetch for free. Our water has been contaminated,” she said.

Mrs. Agbabiaka’s ordeal confirms the wisdom of Olorunfunmi who told ECHONEWS that people who dug boreholes with the hope of getting clean water only ended up wasting their money.

Another resident on Sanusi street, Mrs. Ramota Sanusi, said many of the households in the  neighbourhoods had more than one well or borehole because they abandon boreholes once they notice the water smells of fuel.

A former Chairman of the Abuna/Sanusi Community Development Association, Chief Samuel Obembe, noted that aside from the wells and boreholes being polluted, pumping machines got damaged because they could not withstand the mixture of fuel and water.

The community’s efforts to make PPMC accountable for the spills from its pipelines into their underground water began seven years ago when the first case of contaminated water was discovered at the residence of Mr. Adedeji Ogunba on Aminatu Ilo Street, on Saturday, August 24,

At the time, the development caused a stir. The plight of the community made the news and the former NNPC Depot Manager in Ejigbo, Dr. Balogun Tola, visited and promised that the corporation would fix it.

Tola, who commended Ogunba for reporting the contamination to the NNPC,took samples of the water for tests.

Community leaders claimed that the corporation did not fulfil its promises of addressing the problem.

Instead, landlords became targets of arrests by the policemen who were investigating vandals alleged to be siphoning fuel from the pipelines.

In 2015, 28 streets were affected by the vandalisation of NNPC pipes.

In May 2019, the NNPC pipeline on Tunde Alabi Crescent, Ejigbo, was vandalised.

Reports have it that the pipeline was not sealed until around 12.30pm, nearly 12 hours after the incident was reported.

The then Chairman of Victory Estate Community Development Association, Mr. John Akinnubi, had lamented that the spill would compound the pollution problem the community was grappling with.

After sending reminder letters to the NNPC without success, the community threatened to sue the corporation for redress by asking for N1.5billion compensation.

This time,they got a response,

The current Chairman of the CDA, Mr. Remi Suara, said the NNPC later visited the community and promised to provide them with boreholes as a palliative..

He said they were asked to submit quotations for the renovation works to be done. The community requested a borehole with a submersible pump.

Two drilling companies, Ola-Mosh (Nigeria) Limited and Engineer Adejare Raji Enterprises, in their estimates dated November 17, 2015, demanded N302,000 and N282,000, respectively.

It was gathered that some years after the community began to complain about the leaky pipelines, things took a turn for the worse as both the police and officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps randomly raided some of the landlords on allegations of breaking the NNPC pipelines and connecting hoses from the pipes to their wells.

Some of arrested landlords were said to have paid hundreds of thousands to get bail from security agencies, who always threatened to arraign them on illegal oil bunkering charges.

But in June 2020, more than seven years after, a port worker and landlord on Surprise Avenue, Mr. Abayomi Shafe, was said to have also been arrested by men of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team, on the same suspicion of “connecting pipes to the NNPC pipelines to the well.”

He was whisked away, as his family was subjected to pains and agony, because the policemen did not reveal where they were taking him to.

A few days later, his family got a message that they should come to Ibadan, Oyo State, to perfect his bail.

The former DPO of Ejigbo Police Divisional Headquarters, CSP Olabisi Okuwobi told ECHONEWS that the police officers who arrested the residents then were not from Lagos State.

The Chairman of the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, Hon. Mobsuru Bello, said letters and meetings with the NNPC yielded no fruit.

He dismissed claims by security agents and the NNPC that residents were linking their wells to pipelines.

The member representing Oshodi/Isolo Constituency at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Jude Idimogu, said he was aware of the spillage.

Idimogu lamented that efforts to get the attention of the NNPC has been futile.