On August 28, 2002, a major blow out ocurred at Shell Petroleum Development Company's well at Mgbuodo village in Rivers State of Nigeria, spilling a large volume of crude oil into the enviroment of the rural area.

In another community in the same Rivers State, indigenes of Mgbede, Ogba, are vehemently complaining of the decade-long pollution of the land by an Italian oil multinational, AGIP, which has poisoned their land and made fishing and farming an unrewarding occupation for a people whose means of sustenance has been through subsistence agriculture.

At Okpella, Edo State, the five thousand indigenes of one of its villages woke up one day in September to find an oil spillage in their land and stream following a burst pipeline filled with refined crude owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).

In the llaje area of Ondo State, there is a lingering crisis between Chevron, an American multinational oil company, and the indigenes of the oil communities following the forceful seizure of land by the giant oil production company, the enviromental devastation which has been done on the land and the refusal of Chevron to make amends for activities which has caused untold hardship on the people of the area.

On the return to democratic governance in Nigeria a lot of people in the oil producing communities in the Niger Delta had expected that this would be an opportunity to tackle the issue of enviromental pollution being meted out on the land, but this has not been so as the problem seems to have intensified. Acording to Elder Bernanrd Agbagwa, a ninety year old father of five children and sixty grandchildren, the Mgbuodo community is linked to other areas by the Eze Rumueke River, but the entire place has been turned brown and the local folks cannot fish in the river. He says: "I visited the Ovuo Swamp in the afternoon of August 28 to check my fishing traps and ponds. When I got there I perceived a very bad odour and as I moved on I saw that my traps and ponds have turned red. We called a meeting of the landlords in the area and we confirmed that there had been an oil spill." The crude oil, which spewed out of Shell's pipelines which have not been replaced after many years, had been spreading unchecked over the land and water of a community where ninety percent of the inhabitants depend on farming and fishing for survival.

At Mgbede, AGIP had in I992 converted two of its wellheads at its oilfields into dumpsites for hazardous chemicals at an area of the community known as Ideagu, and that had brought about the problem. Over the years wastes estimated at fifteen thousand tonnes have released offensive odours and dangerous toxic substances into the atmosphere leading to an outbreak of epidemic in the area. Enviromentalists put Mgbede in the top bracket of communities in the Niger Delta where the greatest havoc has been perpetuated on land and water by multinational companies. However, the accumulated dump of these materials by AGIP, tolerable in the past, have become so discomfitting that a normally happy-go-lucky people have been forced the make enquires about what has happened to their land. "I'm carrying a seven months old pregnancy," says Mary Eshiogu, a twenty six year old farmer at Mgbede, "My house is just a few meters from Well 23, where AGIP pours this poison.As the days passes, so AGIP is releasing new ones. How do I cope with this bad odour entering my house on a daily basis? To worsen matters, the rain has washed the chemicals into the river, our only source of drinking water."

However, it is not only multinational oil companies which are guilty of the pollution of the lands of the Niger Delta as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) , a Nigerian oil giant, is also involved in the old business. In September, an NNPC pipeline sunk in the backyard of the indigenes of Okpella, a rural town deep in Edo State of the Niger Delta, suffered a burst and tonnes upon tonnes of refined crude spewed into the community. It found its way into the underground water supply and then into the farmlands, poisoning over twenty three wells and wilting the farms of cassava. plantain, yam, coconuts and oranges which the local folks use for their sustenance. Investigations reveal that the burst pipeline was laid in I973 and has not been replaced since, making it susceptible to bursts. Says Chief Bamaiye Momodu, a village head in Okpella:" All our wells are destroyed. We farm cassava, plantain, coconuts, and other things but all these are all gone. We do not know the extent of the damage yet, that will come after the experts have studied the situation. But meanwhile, we are suffering badly."

The communities are having difficulty in making the multinationals and the NNPC to take reponsibility for the damage which the aged pipelines and indiscriminate dumping of wastes materials are causing on their ancestral lands. For instance, an interactive session called by the Ondo State House of Assembly on October 8 to find a solution to the lingering crisis between oil giant, Chevron, and the oil communities in LLaje area, was shunned by the former. This would be the third time that such a meeting has been disregarded by Chevron as the first and second meetings scheduled for August were similarly boycotted by the oil company without any explanation, aggravating the temper of the communities involved. Says Mr Benson Amuwa, Chairman, Petroleum Matters, Ondo State House of Asssembly, on the botched meeting: "Several petitions were written to the house concerning Chevron activities, but their attitude today shows the levity with which the company takes the state government and the House of Assembly."

Recently, a few members of the Mgbede community , realizing the danger posed by the wastes to the land and water of the area, mobilized the youths and visited AGIP's operational base at Ebocha, a nearby community, to complain about the treatment meted out to the land by the company but AGIP officials refused to meet the deligation and their response to the cry of the poor was to increase the volume of toxic wastes. At Mgbuodo community, Chief S.O. Nwogwonum, a sixty year old retired civil servant and community leader, led a delegation to meet with Shell officials over the issue of the oil spills, relief packages, and adequate compensation, but this did not yield any dividend.