By ZAKAA LAZARUS
When Nigerians hear “oil spill,” they picture the creeks of Bayelsa or Ogoniland. But follow the pipeline map, and the crude follows you home.
From the tank farm jungle of Atlas Cove in Lagos, through the crowded communities of Arepo and Ijegun in Ogun, to the depot towns of Mosimi, Ibadan, Ilorin, Kaduna and Ajaokuta, over 5,000 kilometres of ageing pipelines and 100 private fuel storage terminals have brought the same pollution risk to the doorsteps of millions outside the Niger Delta.
Data from the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency NOSDRA itself shows it. While its Oil Spill Monitor is dominated by spills in Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa, repeated entries for Lagos, Ogun and Kaduna are logged as “equipment failure,” “operational failure” and “mystery spills” from depots and product pipelines.
Yet, stakeholders say, the national response system is still built for the Delta alone.
In Ijegun and Ibafon, Apapa, more than 40 tank farms are clustered on a fragile shoreline and wetlands, sharing fences with homes, schools and churches.
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria – ERA/FoEN – which has monitored downstream pollution for over a decade, has repeatedly warned that Lagos has become a “sacrifice zone” for downstream operations.
“The conversation is always about crude oil in the Niger Delta, but what about refined product pollution in Lagos?” an ERA/FoEN field monitor mention that “We have documented groundwater in Ijegun and Baruwa-Awori contaminated with petrol for over five years. Families cannot drink from their wells. The colour of the water changes. NOSDRA logs it, but who cleans it up?”
A question begging for answers.
The cases are not new. The Abule-Ado explosion in 2020, linked to a gas pipeline rupture, killed over 20 people. In Baruwa, Alimosho LGA, a leaking NNPC pipeline contaminated community water sources for months in 2022-2023, with residents reporting fuel sheen in their boreholes. In Ijegun, a fire outbreak from pipeline vandalism is a recurring threat.
NOSDRA’s own Gas Flare Tracker and Oil Spill Monitor capture parts of it, but NGOs say downstream spills are under-reported because private depot owners are not members of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), which is mandated to report to NOSDRA.
The System 2B pipeline, Atlas Cove to Mosimi to Ibadan to Ilorin is arguably Nigeria’s most vandalised and most populated pipeline corridor.
For communities in Arepo, Ogere and Ilara in Ogun State, oil pollution is not an abstract Niger Delta issue. It is the smell of petrol in their homes.
The Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) which tracks spills nationally, notes that sabotage narrative masks a deeper problem of ageing infrastructure.
“When you check NOSDRA data for Ogun and Lagos, many spills are not sabotage, they are operational failures,” a Port Harcourt-based researcher with SDN said. “These pipelines were laid in the 1970s. They have exceeded their lifespan. But because it happens in Arepo and not in Gbaramatu, it gets less national attention.”
Community leaders in Arepo say they live in fear. “Our children fetch water that smells of fuel. We have reported to NOSDRA Lagos office several times,” said a CDA Chairman in Arepo who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal from vandals. “They come for Joint Investigation Visit, but remediation is slow.”
The risk stretches further north. Around Kaduna Refinery, Ejigbo Depot in Lagos, Suleja Depot in Niger State, and along the Escravos-Lagos Gas Pipeline corridor, NGOs report similar patterns – chronic, low-level leaks contaminating farmlands and groundwater.
Health of Mother Earth Foundation – HOMEF – and Kebetkache Women Development Centre, which work with women in polluted communities across the Delta and beyond, say women bear the brunt outside the Delta too.
“In Bayelsa we talk about crude, but in Mosimi and Kaduna, women who farm near pipeline right-of-way complain of stunted crops and water that burns the skin,” a programme officer with Kebetkache noted. “The NOSDRA mandate is national, but its equipment stockpiles and accredited responders are concentrated in Port Harcourt and Warri. Does NOSDRA Lagos have booms, skimmers and dispersants for a major tank farm leak in Ijegun?”
By law, NOSDRA coordinates Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Contingency Plan for all oil spills, onshore and offshore, crude and refined. But interviews with NGOs and a review of its published reports suggest its capacity outside the Niger Delta is thin.
The LivelyStone Foundation for Peace and Community Development, which works in Bayelsa and Delta, says the national focus must expand.
“We work in communities where pollution has been there for 10 years. But we also get calls from communities in Ogun and Lagos saying our water is polluted, who do we call? NOSDRA needs to be seen as a national emergency responder, not just a Niger Delta agency.”
Key questions NOSDRA is yet to publicly answer are:
How many oil spill reports outside the Niger Delta were received in 2024/2025?
How many accredited Tier 2 oil spill responders are based in Lagos, Ogun and Kaduna zones?
What is the remediation status of long-standing downstream pollution sites like Baruwa-Awori and Ijegun?
As Nigeria pushes for energy security and pushes more products through its pipeline network to feed 21 depots, environmentalists warn that without expanding NOSDRA’s national footprint, the country is simply transferring the pollution from the creeks to the cities.
The spill has left the Delta. It is already in Lagos.
Zakaa Lazarus environmental journalist. zakaalazarus10@gmail.com
