An environmental activist has rejected claims that the recent explosion on the Trans-Niger Delta Pipeline in Bodo, Rivers State, was linked to political unrest, instead blaming aging infrastructure.
Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, Executive Director of the Youth and Environmental Advocacy Center, stated that the pipeline, operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and Shell, failed due to decades of wear and tear.
“These pipelines have been laid for over sixty years,” Fyneface told Daily Post. “They are bursting and deflating like balloons when heavy pressure is applied to transport crude oil to the Bonny export terminal.”
Dismissing speculation that the blast was linked to ethnic tensions in Rivers State, he clarified that Ogoniland, where the explosion occurred, is separate from the Ikwerre and Ijaw ethnic groups involved in the dispute.
He noted that the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) would officially determine whether the explosion resulted from equipment failure or sabotage.
Fyneface described oil spills and pipeline explosions in the Niger Delta as a “regular occurrence,” emphasizing that weeks without such incidents are rare.
“A lot of these pipelines are already bad, already weak,” he warned. “And divestment is going on, where multinational oil companies are handing over these facilities to indigenous companies who lack the technological capacity and finances to run them.”
Without urgent maintenance, he cautioned, Nigeria should expect more pipeline failures, explosions, and oil spills.
