A bold inscription at the entrance of the estate welcomes visitors into the relatively quiet neighbourhood.
“Pipeline vandals just operated there some days ago and set the place on fire. You may need to be extra careful if you want to go there. Interviews with more than two dozen residents, political leaders and scientists, and a PREMIUM TIMES’ investigation have shown that despite repeated promises by the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company and other government agencies, oil pipelines in the area have remained broken and obsolete.
According to him, trouble began in the community when residents complained of the smell of oil in their water. Najeem Ajelanwa, the head of Ajelanwa community of Baruwa, confirmed Mr Baruwa’s position in a separate interview with PREMIUM TIMES. The community head noted, however, that when samples of water from the borehole were taken for testing and the result showed that it was not suitable for human consumption, the borehole facilities were shut.
The pipelines are located particularly in a part of the community called “Gate”, from where it passes through the rear end of Peace Estate and other parts of the community. PREMIUM TIMES findings showed that after several years, the pipelines became rusty and leakages led to pollution.The researchers were led by Samuel Ola, a professor of Geotechnical and Geo-Environmental Engineering at the Federal University of Technology Akure .
”Groundwater pollution from leaking NNPC/PPMC underground pipelines in Baruwa community has been continuous and the leakage source persistent as evidenced by fresh petroleum product detection in the groundwater at some of the observation wells after the successful clean-up of the pilot scheme area by experts using modern remediation methods,” the researchers said in the report.
A member of the FUTA research team, Tope Oluwalope, told PREMIUM TIMES about efforts made to address the leakage. “I advised that residents should not make use of the water, for drinking. They are not supposed to use the water to cook, even,” he said.