"Each morning, I see at least seven fish dead from pollution," says Abraham Npkor, a fisherman from Rumuekpe in Rivers State, southern Nigeria. He claims even those he can still bring to the market now "have an odour."
17-year-old Ike and his elder brother of 24 years old in September 2022 visited their family farmland in Oduoha Nvakohia in Rivers State to harvest cassava, only to dig out crude oil in the course of uprooting their farm produce. All their cassava has been killed by the TotalEnergies EP oil spill. The boys now see the oil spill on their farmland as an avenue to scoop and bale out the crude oil with a steel bucket, basin, and cellophane nylon bags to pack it to their dumpsite. An event the reporters witnessed.