The Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to the Ikata oil spill in a part of Rivers State has begun, according to officials of the Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
NOSDRA sources also said excavation has commenced to determine the cause of spill after initial community resistance to efforts to access the location.
Foot soldiers of Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) had raised the alarm on May 5, 2025, about the spill in Ikata, in Ahoada East local council area of Rivers State.
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The spill was reported 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), the company that recently acquired the assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria Ltd in a $2.4billion divestment deal.
The world was alerted to the by YEAC-Nigeria which reported it in a statement in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, signed by its Executive Director, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface.
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.
The statement added that the spill point, suspected to be tortious (third-party) interference, was seriously spilling crude oil into the environment and destroying the ecosystem.
A television crew that traced the spot with help with local volunteers found that the area was flooded in crude oil.
A pipeline protection source told the crew that villagers admitted that farmers were sometimes induced by oil contractors to break pipes and cause spill so they could get contract to clean up the area. This may confirm lingering suspicions in the region over the years that some clean up contractors often aid pipeline breaches.
NOSDRA led by Emeka Woke has also smelt third party tampering, saying they would make categorical statement in the coming days.
The area is covered PINL which protects the Trans-Niger Pipeline. On May 8, 2025, the company held a stakeholders forum in Port Harcourt where Akpos Mezeh, PINL Community Relations Consultant, confirmed cases of connivance between community persons and contractors or between security operatives and vandals on the other hand.
Mezeh described connivance as the biggest challenge obstructing perfect protection of the TNP and other oil assets. He said the community people reported release of those they arrested and handed over to the security agencies for investigation and prosecution.
