Arewa Group Warns Against Politicisation of Blowout

The Arewa Consultative Youth Movement (ACYM) yesterday cautioned against the politicisation of the spill in Nembe, “by people with little understanding of how the clean-up process works.”

President of the group and Convener, Association of Northern Youth Groups, Mallam Kabiru Yusuf, stated that incidents that arise in the course of crude oil exploration and exploitation needed to be professionally managed and not be discussed in the realm of politics.

He noted that the politicisation of difficult and highly technical issues by entities or persons with poor or no understanding of the key issues, would further create divisions where none exist.

Yusuf maintained that genuine and expert interventions already deployed should not be discredited or hobbled by hostile fringe industry interests.

He stated that for some incomprehensible reasons, several forces had deployed their armaments to smear and damage not only the image of Aiteo, but its considerable efforts to curb the blowout.

“From peddling specious information that the spill had led to losses in excess of two million barrels, some have alleged that over 500,000 barrels were spilled, while some have suggested figure stupendous loss of some 200,000 daily,” he stated.

He argued that the competent regulatory agencies that could provide the appropriate and correct information were hardly approached to do so.

“It certainly cannot be over-stressed that what is playing out appears like well-choreographed intrigue at work to undermine Aiteo and besmirch ongoing efforts to contain the leak and mitigate the impact on communities around the location of the well,” Yusuf said.

He posited that comparing the spill to the Hiroshima atomic bomb catastrophe was mischievous, saying that it betrays crass ignorance, describing the purveyors of such narratives as hostile forces of divisiveness “who have an axe to grind with the indigenous oil company.”
The group stated that even Governor Douye Diri “who is not a petroleum engineer” had demonstrated a disposition to his contributions to the public discussions by alleging impossible scenarios.