Oil spill clean-up delay angers Ogoniland residents.
BODO, Nigeria – Under a leaden sky in oil-rich southern Nigeria, young men hang around with nothing to do, covering their noses from the noxious fumes of the polluted swamp.
The sight in Bodo, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Port Harcourt, is repeated in communities elsewhere in the maze of creeks that criss-cross Ogoniland.
"The people of Ogoni still cannot have access to safe drinking water, not to talk of electricity, basic schools and roads," he told AFP.
Anger in Nigeria’s south over oil spill clean-up delay https://t.co/ilvBUDhtXR #tech #science — oniverse (@theoniverse) June 22, 2017 In June 2016, Nigeria’s Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo formally launched the project, which the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said could take 30 years.
Fish and carcinogens Ignatius Feegha, 41, used to catch fish as a child in the waterways of the Niger Delta.
"We can’t see no fish in this water because the water is stained with crude oil," he said.
He said the youths who were unemployed insisted on being paid the money instead of allowing Shell to give the job to contractors.
So Shell, which had already engaged two companies to do the job, had to back out," he added.
READ: Oil spill as militants blow up pipelines in south Nigeria Agbulu said Shell was not ready to give cash to the youths and since they would not allow the contractors to handle the job, decided to suspend the clean-up.