Crude oil spill alert group discovers tapping in Ahoada West area of Rivers State

Tapping of crude oil is said to be going on in a hidden point in Ahoada West area of Rivers State, a place identified as Idu-Ekpeye.

The pipeline is said to belong to Oando, formerly owned by Agip. The group that discovered it says it has a one million man team around the Gulf of Guinea as volunteers working for security. They say they are recognized by government.

Now, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) has confirmed receiving the alert and a report through its Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS) Network.

YEAC-Nigeria also says it has ‘Network on Organized Crime in Nigeria’. They said they got a report that a crude oil tapping point was discovered Thursday morning, May 7, 2026.

Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, the Executive Director, YEAC-Nigeria, who confirmed the report to BusinessDay, the alert was accompanied by videos and photographs of the incident. He confirmed that the tapping point was discovered on Oando PLC pipeline right of way in the community. BusinessDay gathered that Abili Integrated Services Ltd is contracted by Oando to protect pipelines in the area and the company said few weeks ago it has helped the oil major to achieve 96% oil output of its capacity.

Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited also has a contract to protect pipelines and now other oil assets in the Eastern Corridor (Bayelsa, Rivers, Imo, Abia). Its spokesman, Akpos Mezeh, briefs stakeholders monthly where he has reported zero-infraction records almost every month. He however raised alarm in April saying some acts of sabotage were creeping in. He announced threats of sanctions on community persons helping sabotage of oil assets.

The crude oil tapping report however stated that a 2-inch valve was used by economic saboteurs to tap crude oil from an 8-inch pipeline right of way in the community. The saboteurs vandalized the facility to divert crude oil for artisanal refining activities in the area.

YEAC said it is evident that the current high cost of petroleum products — especially PMS and AGO — which has made them inaccessible to ordinary citizens, coupled with harsh economic conditions, is likely to trigger a surge in pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining, and environmental pollution. “Jobless youths, driven to pursue a livelihood in the informal oil and gas sector, are behind this trend.

“This reinforces our continued call on the federal government to legalize, modernize, standardize, and integrate artisanal refineries into the national economy by establishing the Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI), as proposed by YEAC-Nigeria on July 27, 2020.”

He said PACORDI should serve as a corresponding initiative to the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI) for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta as PAGMI is serving the interests of illegal gold miners in parts of the North and Western Nigeria.

While condemning the act, the Advocacy Centre continued to call on youths in the Niger Delta to desist from economic sabotage through pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft. “Such acts not only contribute to environmental pollution and rob government of development revenue but also destroy the livelihoods of fishermen and farmers. YEAC-Nigeria will continue to advocate for the establishment of PACORDI and for the consideration of modular refineries for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta, as proposed under the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, in 2017.

“We also call on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to engage the operator of the pipeline right of way, Oando, and conduct a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to the scene of the incident. This is with a view to facilitating the identification and prosecution of those responsible, in line with the relevant provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, using the JIV report.”