By Samuel Oyadongha

Yenagoa—Fear has gripped indigenes of Tombia in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, following a reported air pollution suspected to be emanating from oil and gas facilities located near the community.

The fear of the natives is caused by the reported thick soot in the atmosphere in Port Harcourt, in neighbouring Rivers State, earlier in the month.

Indigenes of Tombia community, weekend, lamented what they described as the poor air quality in communities around the Gbarain-Ubie LNG plant owned by Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC.

The Community Development Committee, CDC, chairman of Tombia, Mr Seigha Akoko, yesterday, said that the development had adversely affected respiratory functions of residents in the past few days.

He said residents had reported the air pollution in the areas surrounding the gas facility to the leadership of the communities.

His words: “Our people and subjects have reported the pollution of the air around us here in the past few days, leading to respiratory complications and we have noticed several birds have died.

“The Paramount Ruler has summoned his cabinet and other levels of community leadership and the issue of deteriorating air quality was exhaustively discussed.  We do suspect that it might be from the gas plant around us at Gbarantoru, so we want the relevant government agencies to investigate and come up with results. Apart from the air pollution, effluents from the facility have made the waters toxic and wiped out the fish stock.

“A lot of strange things happen along the Taylor Creek. The waters no longer supply fish as was the case before the gas plant started operations.

“We want air quality tests to be conducted while those having respiratory difficulties should be examined to trace the source. The problem is that we do not have access to most of the tests conducted in the past.

“Our fear is that the toxicity level here is higher than the tolerance limits and we do hope that the studies are conducted fast.”

Also, some residents attributed the respiratory difficulties they faced to the suspected air pollution.