"10 Delta communities battle NNPC over alleged oil spill", 7 Sept 2016

Ten Ijaw communities...have petitioned the Delta State government alleging that a massive crude oil spill is ravaging their environment from a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, facility....The representatives told journalists...that the spill, which occurred on August 17, 2016, was traced to a crude oil trunk line from the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), the products marketing and distribution subsidiary of the NNPC...The communities accused the PPMC of not carrying out a proper joint investigation of the incident...“Instead, PPMC brought in military men to chase away villagers without carrying out a proper joint investigation of the incident to identify and stop the source of the spill as well as carry out effective remediation and compensate to the affected communities and people,” the communities said in a letter...But the NNPC spokesperson, Garba Deen Mohammed, said what happened was not an oil spill, but a leakage from one of the products tanks following a burst pipeline from the PPMC facility in the area...“The incident was not as a result of an attack. It was a mechanical fault that resulted in a burst in one of the tanks,” he said.