Succor appears to come the way of the people of Ilaje Community in Ondo State as the House committees on Host Communities, Petroleum Upstream & Petroleum Downstream, jointly but led by the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Host Communities, Rt. Hon. Dumnamene Robinson Dekor has visited the site and the Ondo State governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu over the sad incidence.
Rt. Hon. Dekor who told the governor he was on the visit on behalf of the National Assembly to empathize with him over the sad incidence, applauded him for not politicising issues of national development.
According to him, members of the Committee visited some of the affected areas to access the extent of the damage recorded.
“There’s been a lot of investigations. What we heard from a lot of agencies that carried out investigations goes to show that they had well over a hundred thousand barrels of crude oil on that facility.
“So, it means that with that explosion, a lot of that product has been dispersed into the waters, and the effect is not only at that particular spot (onshore) but to coastal areas in other states”, he said, adding however that the biggest impact as investigations showed, was at Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State.
Gov Akeredolu while responding, commended Rt. Hon. Dekor and members of the Committee for the visit, noting that the impact of the explosion was huge.
The governor said the cleaning up of the affected areas and payment of compensation must be done with utmost transparency and sincerity.
He regretted that the explosion has damaged the vegetation and aquatic lives of the people to the extent that they cannot be adequately compensated.
Recall that the sad event took place in February this year when an explosion and the resultant fire engulfed a floating production storage and offloading vessel off the coast of Ilaje Local Government Area of the state.
