The Nigerian House of Representatives on Wednesday mandated its committees on environment and oil and gas upstream to investigate the causes of the incessant oil spills by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company in the Niger Delta region in the past few months.

The lawmakers also asked the committee to invoke the provisions of the offenses and punishment section of the oil and gas regulation to ensure enforcement.

This decision was following a matter of urgent public importance raised by Representative Stella Dorgu over the rate of oil spillage in Nigeria to the effect that 42 spills have already been recorded in the first quarter of 2014 alone resulting in loss and pollution of farmlands, water sources and displacement of indigenes.

Representative Dorgu said a recent spillage in Ikarama community in Yenagoa the capital of Bayelsa State on March 1 were preceded by spills in November and August of 2013 from facilities owned by the same oil company and other communities have experienced several spillage in the past month with no recourse, remediation, or compensation or even repair of the old pipelines which have been the sources of these spills.

Source: Channels TV