Rivers: Is Black Soot Ravaging Oyigbo Only From Bunkering?

By Odimegwu Onwumere
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Odimegwu Onwumere

When you deny a man the peace to live in his house you are invariably courting lawlessness.

The above is what the cookers of the dangerous black soot want to provoke residents in Oyigbo, Okpoulo-Iriebe, Umuebulu axis of Location 15 and co with.

On October 18 2022 at about 7:30am, my mobile line was inundated with calls from residents in those areas bitterly complaining that the soot they experienced in the night in those areas was second to none.

"We couldn't sleep last night as black smelling soot threatened our sleep. The environment is seriously affected likewise our health and house property," one of the callers said.

It is evidence that something more than the illegal refineries might be happening around the mentioned areas with the authorities pursuing white elephant crime while the in-thing isn't talked about.

From chats, those areas are becoming tough neighborhoods in the hands of perpetrators of the black fumes that have incessantly been spread into the air causing discomfiture to residents.

The government has professionals who can investigate what the neighborhoods in the aforementioned areas are up to and address the issue of the heavy black smoke that the merchants only release in the night.

The environment has been compromised waiting for the health aspect to show the result of what the residents of those areas have been inhaling silently with everyone looking elsewhere, lackadaisical.

Rivers state government under the leadership of Governor Nyesom Wike has no reason to say that nobody has observed the danger that has become the heavy black smoke around the corner.

The cause for whatever business that has been yielding to the soot is wrong. It is evil and the pride by the peddlers of the menace not to stop is a crime.

Governor Wike had on January 3 2022 launched a war against illegal bunkering to stem the pollutant called black soot in the state, then how come that while he had seen to the shutting down of such refineries across the state and their perpetrators placed on arrest, that Oyigbo, Okpoulo-Iriebe and Location 15 areas are still under heavy attack of heavy black smoke especially at night.

It therefore behoves Wike to investigate multi-oil companies, residential houses, streets, creeks and the other in the areas to ascertain where the heavy black pollution has been emanating from to disturb the peace and health of residents. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.

© ODIMEGWU ONWUMERE
Jan. 18 2022.