Environmentalist and climate justice advocate Nnimmo Bassey has called for an independent investigation into the deaths of at least 37 people reportedly involved in an illegal oil siphoning operation in Okrika, Rivers State.
The police in Rivers State confirmed the deaths but said they will continue to investigate the details.
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“The Rivers State Police Command can confirm the deaths. The victims were allegedly attempting to steal crude oil,” the Command spokesperson, Blessing Agbabe, told DW News, a German international broadcast station.
Mr Bassey, in a commentary titled “Gassing the Niger Delta,” said the incident should prompt urgent action to address longstanding environmental and safety concerns in the oil-producing region.
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The deaths were reported on Thursday at Okari Jetty in Okrika Mainland, where people suspected of illegal oil bunkering had gathered to load petroleum products. Community sources and the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) said at least 37 people died after inhaling fumes. Several others were reported missing.
Mr Bassey said the exact cause of the deaths remained unclear because, as of the time of his commentary, there had been no official or independent investigation into the incident.
“Obviously, the last breath of the dead may have been of noxious gases released under high pressure,” he wrote, adding that the victims might also have drowned after losing consciousness.
The YEAC-Nigeria Executive Director, Fyneface Dumnamene, called on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to conduct an immediate Joint Investigation Visit to the site. He also urged the company whose pipeline was vandalised to improve security around its facilities.
Related incidents
Mr Bassey linked the Okrika deaths to the ongoing methane gas seepage in Bille, a fishing community in the Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State.
PREMIUM TIMES reported in June that gas has been bubbling from abandoned oil and gas infrastructure in Bille for nearly a year, threatening residents’ health and livelihoods. The report said preliminary assessments by NOSDRA indicated the presence of methane, volatile organic compounds and hydrogen sulphide in the ambient air.
Amnesty International, in a March report, said the gas has been bubbling since October 2025 in rivers, swamps and drinking wells in Bille. The organisation said the Nigerian government conducted an investigation but had not released the findings or taken action to stop the leaks.
In May, Amnesty said residents were still facing a serious health emergency and that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission had begun an investigation. It called for the findings to be made public and for the leaks to be stopped.
Mr Bassey, in his commentary, said, “As we write this, the gas is still dangerously emitting in the community and could erupt in flames at any time. There have been some palliatives or relief materials by the government, and the provision of a fire truck that cannot access much of the community.
“We also hear of the provision of fire extinguishers in the community. These are all laughable actions in the face of an impending tragedy. Visitors to Bille end up getting sick within a short period of time. Residents, especially children and the elderly, develop illnesses at rates that signal something toxic is happening in the community and that the risks extend beyond possible fire outbreaks.
“Truth is that the Bille community is being gassed while the government and the oil companies are wringing their hands and watching from the sidelines. I recall hearing a minister of state on television claim that there were no oil facilities in Bille. Such crass, obnoxious ignorance!”
He also cited the fire at the Ororo-1 oil well, offshore Awoye in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, which began in May 2020.
A PREMIUM TIMES report in April noted that the fire was still burning more than six years after the incident. NOSDRA earlier said the fire followed an explosion during workover operations on the well.
Mr Bassey said the Okrika deaths should not become another tragedy that attracts attention only until the victims are buried.
“The dead will be buried. They will be branded criminals, and perhaps rightly so. But we all know that oil thievery is an industrial activity with a long value chain, and players, so to speak,” he wrote.
Mr Bassey called for the cleanup of the Niger Delta, the removal of decrepit oil facilities and the replacement and burial of pipelines.
He also demanded the implementation of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environment Commission report and called for a just transition away from dependence on crude oil.
“Our lives are worth more than crude oil,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES has reported on the environmental and regulatory concerns in the region. In a September 1 investigation, this newspaper found that weak enforcement of anti-gas-flaring laws had allowed oil companies to continue flaring gas, with oil-producing communities bearing the environmental and health costs.
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