RIDO VILLAGE. For those who have never visited this sleepy community in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, the village by reputation should be a paradise where the inhabitants live their lives in peace and pleasure. It is easy to visualise the wide roads, magnificent houses, good health infrastructure and like many other oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta, a 24- hour electricity supply from the oil companies.
It should be in a vintage position and those who dream of the village as an Eldorado could be forgiven. In the whole of Northern Nigerian, it is the only ‘oil-bearing’ community; for 34 years, it has played host to the Kaduna Refining and Petro-Chemical Company Limited (KRPC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
But in Rido, things are not always what they seem. It is not in Niger Delta, but all the trappings of oil pollution, gas flaring and the attendant health problems are common. It could be described as the oil community in the midst of the Sahara. The village is locked in a fierce battle with the oil company and some of its contractors over alleged indiscriminate dumping of waste products from the refinery.
In early December, harmattan had descended on the village leaving the streets dry and dusty. All over the community, a hail of dust had settled on the mud houses and every other living thing including domestic animals. As one moved through the very dusty and uneven Rido roads, a sad and depressing atmosphere was visible. The air was chocking and many of the people went around with long faces. Poverty was evident on almost every structure, animal and human in the village.
The KRPC was designed to refine crude oil and also produce a wide variety of petroleum products some of which are used as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) or Diesel oil, Kerosene, Fuel Oil and Sulphur, according to the NNPC website.
The KRPC also has one of the largest lubricating oil complexes in Africa and some of its products include: Base Oils, Asphalt (Bitumen) and Waxes. The KRPC was initially designed to produce 60,000 Barrels Per Stream Day (BPSD) but was upgraded in 1986 to 110 BPSD.
The refinery itself was a product of the need to satisfy the northern market’s demand for petroleum products which the government thought would be more cost effective than transporting refined oil from Warri by road or rail. The refinery thus served the whole of the northern region with refined petroleum and petro-chemical products.
The refinery, built by Japanese company, Chiyoda Chemical Engineering and Construction Company, occupies 2.89 square kilometers. It is a well laid out plant with different sections clearly laid out. A high, long wall separates the oil-rich Rido from the poor Rido and stretches several kilometers. The road that passes through the refinery is long and smooth and the plant is adjoined by beautiful gardens and posh lawns. There are flowers by its walls and gates and several signposts urge visitors to “help keep our lawns beautiful.”
The KRPC has made tremendous progress in 34 years; business has expanded and profits soared. Like other refineries in Nigeria, the KRPC has constantly flared its gas. According to the locals, the fury of the flames could be felt in all of Rido irrespective of the time of the day. But the prosperity witnessed by the refinery is one sided; the green lawns and beautiful gates, well tarred roads and well oiled executives all ended by the gates of the refinery. The rest is hell and this is where the 40,000 inhabitants of Rido village live.
A community and the oil company
On Sunday, December 14, 2014 around 3pm, a huge protest was underway in Rido community. It involved men, women, children, invalid, the cripple and the aged. About 1000 members of the village gathered in the village square. It is a small space in-between four rectangle shaped houses. There is no finesse about this square as it consists of only dust and sand. The protesters displayed several banners calling for justice for the long suffering people of the community. Others spoke about environmental justice for the villagers, while a banner reads: “What is good in the South is good in the North, Environmental Justice for the Dead Children and Poisoned People of Rido.”
Mariam Shuaibu was very prominent in the protest. She is a short, middle age woman with broken teeth and tough look. Shuaibu is no ordinary woman; she is the women leader of Rido community and one of its most outspoken activists. The women and men alike look to her and her never ending energy and commitment to the cause of Rido.
Shuaibu could reel off all the things that were wrong with Rido on the tip of her fingers. “We have disability in this village; many of our children are disabled and some of them have speech defect. We have lost some children in this community and it has affected our husband’s sexual performance as they cannot satisfy us sexually because of the gas flare that we are exposed to.” For this litany of woes, there is only one direction the blame would go: The KRPC.
About 1000 members of the community agreed with Shuaibu. According to them, the village has endured 34 years of consistent gas flaring, which has left the community paralysed, a number of its indigenes dead and several more disabled.
There are more accusations against the company; the residents say since the refinery was established, only eight indigenes have been employed. In August 2014, Shuaibu wrote to the KRPC asking that the youth be employed. “Since the company was commissioned in 1980, only eight people from the area had been mandated to be working as staff and we now have excessive unemployed youths roaming about the street looking for daily food upon all the smoke we are inhaling from the plant of the company which harm us always,” she wrote.
Shuaibu did not get the dignity of a response. “Anybody you see in the refinery from this community working there is a cleaner, earning between N5,000 and N10,000 per month,” a resident said.
But more worrisome is the state of the community, there is no tarred road and the presence of the government is lacking. The residents say when it rains, about 70 percent of the roads become impassable. The KRPC dug one borehole which at the time of the visit has been abandoned; some residents alleged that the water from the borehole was contaminated. The hospital in the village was built with Debt Relief Gains of the Federal Government, while the KRPC built one school block for the community.
The villagers are simple farmers and their market attested to it. Farmers brought simple vegetables and pepper to the market for sale in the evenings, while itinerant food sellers occupy almost every available space on the dirt floors. The biggest commodity in Rido is not the oil but food.
Toxic waste: two years of open sore
There are many questions begging for answers about toxic waste from the KRPC dumped on the community allegedly by a contractor around June 2012. Is it true that the waste dumped inside Rido community was toxic? Could the waste have been responsible for the death of about 1000 birds in Biams Takai Farms and could it have been the cause of the strange illness which afflicted children and adult about the same time?
More importantly, could the waste have been the cause of the violent death of at least five children in the village, who died some weeks after the dumping of the waste, following severe illness, which involves abdominal pain, vomiting and body weakness?
The answer to this puzzle is dependent on the persons one is asking as the village is polarised between the supporters of the KRPC and the villagers. Most of the villagers are on one side, while the village head, Sirkin Rido, Hamisu Haruna, and some of his chiefs are reportedly on the side of the oil company.
The Nation’s investigations began where the whole problem started on Dokaje Street, where the waste was dumped. Nothing remained of the waste now but dry and irritating grass. But about 500 meters away are the remains of Biams Farms, which reportedly recorded massive financial losses. Some of the structures had collapsed, while the chicken pen had less than 10 birds remaining.
But the farm had not always been like this, according to a farm worker, who declined to give his name. There were cows and over 3,000 birds, eggs were plentiful and profit soared until the fateful day when contractors from KRPC dumped alleged a fatal waste on the farm.
According to a letter of complaint written by the farm to KRPC on July 4, 2012 and signed by one Mrs. Maimuna Isa, which was obtained by The Nation, the waste was allegedly dumped between June 10 and 14, 2012, the farm began recording high mortality of its birds from June 10 and peaked on June 14 when more than 500 birds died within three hours. The farm believes the death is a direct result of the waste from the KRPC.
The letter read: “We wish to state categorically that being bird handlers for over 10 years, this phenomenon (bird mortality) is not unconnected with the dumped harmful waste. The proximity of the farm to the dump site and action of the wind helped to disperse the harmful powdery substance into the farm and environs.”
The Nation traced the Farm Manager, Folorunso Ganiyu, who was a witness to the incident and who said he performed a post-mortem on the dead birds to ascertain the cause of death. “When the mortality began, we were losing between five and 10 birds a day. I started using some drugs and did a post-mortem on the dead birds. I opened the viscera and knew they inhaled some obnoxious gas because if it is a mere respiratory problem, it shouldn’t cause death. We also called our doctor who did a post-mortem and discovered blood in the lungs of the birds. The wind brought some substances from the waste and they settled on our feed, contaminating them and poisoning our birds. The smell is like tear gas.”
Ganiyu said the farm recorded massive losses and is back to square one. “We lost over 1,000 birds; those that survived became weak and egg production dropped and they too began to die. The post-mortem showed they had liver problem; we had to dispose of the birds to protect the other farms. We spent millions to raise those birds and we didn’t make any thing on them, now we are back to square one,” he lamented.
But it is not only Biams Farms that recorded losses allegedly associated with the waste dump, many people in the village did too. To 59-year-old Abdulahi Adamu, who is crippled in both legs, the deaths witnessed in the village is a direct consequence of the toxic waste. “Anyone in this village knows we are in a critical condition because of the toxic waste that was dumped on this village. If you go to the Niger Delta, you will see good roads and schools and hospitals, but here, it is not the same and the waste has killed some of our people,” he said.
Alhaji Saidu Liman told The Nation that he lost three children to the toxic waste; the old man looked wasted and tired. He also said he lost 10 cows, seven goats and some of his surviving children had various health problems.
The residents are not happy with some leaders who are alleged to have been compromised and allegedly being used to thwart every effort made to get redress from both KRPC and Chembache investments. One of the aggrieved residents is the woman leader, who is extremely bitter about the alleged ignoble role, allegedly played by a particular leader.
Another spokesperson, Abdulrazeez Lawal Gwarjo, also insisted that the waste was responsible for the deaths and destruction unleashed upon the village. He took The Nation to some of the victims who lost animals or children; there are many also who were sick.
Hassana Godwin said she fell sick as a result of the waste dump, but more serious is that her brother lost his son in the consequence of the incident. She was bitter against the said leader, accusing him of denying the fact of the boy’s death.
“My brother lost his son called Monday during the waste dump; we went to him (leader) but he denied that the boy was dead. All of us got sick, we are suffering here,” she said. Gloria Joseph who originally came from Akwa Ibiom but has lived in the village for 20 years said: “Please, help us; we are suffering. I almost lost my son during that time. The children just got weak, the vomit was horrible and they lost lots of body fluid. All of us were in the hospital; please help us,” she said.
The dumping of the waste in Rido has assumed a gigantic proportion in the lives of the villagers. The incident has also been given the name, Bola, which is used to describe the dumping of the waste. “The waste caused many problems in this community; many people suffered because there was firewood inside. The women picked these and used in cooking; the smoke they inhaled caused them to vomit and their stomach ached,” Harrisu Habibu, the youth leader of Rido, said.
Habibu also said the community went to complain to the KRPC but got no response; he said even two years after the disaster, the oil company is yet to compensate the community. There is so much bitterness against the embattled leader; it was gathered that he rarely sleeps in the community and not easily accessible. The following day after The Nation first interviewed the residents, it was gathered that the leader held a meeting with some people. According to sources close to the meeting, the leader complained about The Nation’s visit and decried the actions of some youths in the village who spoke to us.
When our reporter requested for an interview, the leader said he was in a meeting and could not respond. His voice sounded cold and harsh. Many text messages sent to him went unanswered as well. When it was gathered that he was in Rido, The Nation returned to the village to wait for him in his residence. After a long wait, The Nation was calmly informed that he had gone to work and the time of his return unsure.
Several phone calls later, the leader finally declined an interview, directing The Nation to go through the proper channel which he did not specify. But from media interviews he granted after the incident, he denied any knowledge of death in his village and aligned himself with the KRPC that the waste was non-toxic.
Deadly toys
The toxic waste, which allegedly caused death and destruction, may have had a limited effect if the villagers had understood the toxic nature of the waste. It was gathered that when the waste was dumped, children went to forage on it looking for toys to play with. Many of those who did fell sick. The women were not left behind as they also went in search of firewood, which they used in preparing the evening meal. The smoke generated from this caused much upset in the village.
The animals were not left behind; dogs went in search of food on the dumpsite and, according to the villagers, many of them died from eating from the dumpsite. Reports of the strange happening soon reached Kaduna and several agencies of government were deployed to investigate the matter.
On June 19, 2012, the KRPC invited the Kaduna State Environmental Protection Authority (KEPA) to sample the alleged waste. Even though KEPA officials declined to speak to The Nation, the report of the investigation dated July 10, 2012, was, however, obtained from sources. From the sample collected by KEPA, most of the chemicals were found to be “within acceptable limit.” Therefore, in the final analysis of KEPA, “The confirmatory test shows that results obtained are within acceptable limits, therefore, the refuse dumped is not harmful to the environment and public health.” The report was signed by one Lawal M. Usman, Director Laboratory Services.
But there are curious observations in the report. Some sections of the chemicals were marked “not determined,” which could be due to lack or faulty equipment to perform the test. For example, tests on Phenols, Hydrocarbon (IR method), Arsenic (mg/I), Cyanide (mg/I), Total Chromium, Selenium, mercury, oil and grease content and Taste were all not determined.
The National Environmental Standard and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) officials went to Rido on June 29 after the waste had been evacuated by KRPC amidst tight security and took soil samples of the site. The result also came back that the samples were not toxic.
The Federal Ministry of Environment also released a report on the waste, dated February 13, 2013 and signed by Mrs. O. O. Babade, Director Pollution Control and Environmental Health. The report concluded: “A careful harmonisation of our findings with the report of KEPA and NESREA makes it difficult to link the alleged loss of poultry and human lives as reported, confirmed the waste not toxic to the alleged waste dumped at the affected sites.”
The Kaduna State House of Assembly also mandated its Committee on Environment on July 10, 2012 to investigate the matter. In a report submitted to the House by Hon. Haruna Inuwa, the committee said it held meetings with members of Rido community, Ministry of Environment, KRPC and Chikun local government and concluded that: The contractor, Chembache Investment, was mandated to dump the refuse at KEPA approved site at Kakau along Kaduna-Abuja Highway; that the contractor breached the terms of agreement with KPRC and KEPA law number 7 of 2012, Section 27 (2).
The House also said Biams Farms did not present any evidence to support its claims and the death of Monday Madaki Liberty was not supported by medical evidence. The Sirkin Rido also did not have any knowledge of any death in his domain. The House also wants KRPC to ensure the supervision and monitoring of its contractors and KEPA to ensure strict compliance with environmental laws.
The Nation contacted Ganiyu, who is also a veterinary doctor, with this new evidence. He said the result from KEPA cannot be relied upon because the parameters are faulty. “The parameters they used do not correlate at all, so the result cannot be relied upon. An environmentalist has carried out a research and says it is toxic, how can NESREA depend on a report that KEPA sent? Does KEPA have the necessary facilities to conduct such a test? We have forensic tests from NADFAC and National Forensic Laboratory, which returned a toxic verdict, so which laboratory should we believe?
“If they said the waste was not toxic, then there is no need to have a special place for dumping it. If it is that harmless, they should have been comfortable dumping it anywhere. They have done something wrong and they cannot apologise, instead, they are treating it with negligence.”
Ganiyu also faulted the House of Assembly report, which he described as lopsided and unfair. “There are two things to note in the way the committee conducted its investigations. When you do an open hearing, you should have all the sides to the dispute in attendance. But KRPC was not represented; they sent in a report to the committee and it took it,” he said.
He also picked holes in the committee report, which, he said, does not have details of the proceedings. “There should have been a step-by-step report of what was said at the hearing. This was not there, the House just passed its judgment, how did they arrive at their deductions?
A minority report
The report of these organs of government appeared to have effectively put paid to any hope of compensation for the people of Rido; it was also a life line that Chembache Investment had been looking for. When confronted with the reports of the agencies, many of the residents dismissed them. “When the NNPC and others came, they did not visit the village, they only went to the palace of the Sirkin and didn’t come to see us here,” Shuaibu said. Many of them expressed anger over the conduct of KRPC officials, who first visited the site. “They didn’t even want to see the sick people, they just said the waste was not from them and they told us to go to court,” a source said.
About three weeks after, KRPC came to evacuate the waste under heavy security with the workers wearing protective gloves, according to information gathered by The Nation. A resident observed that if the waste was non-toxic, the workers should have exposed themselves to it.
But a Civil Rights Organisation, Kaduna Integrity Group, came to the rescue of the villagers and engaged the services of an independent laboratory to conduct a test on the waste. According to a report, dated July 27, 2012 by the laboratory, Analchem-YGT Hydro Technologies Ltd, which was exclusively obtained by The Nation, the material evidences seen at the site were described as bags of caked “Caustic Soda Pearls”. The shipment information on the consignment indicated it belonged to KRPC with Order No: 179 from D.I. s.r.i Via Maurizzo Gonzaga, 201230 Milano, Italy.
“The wastes were, therefore, suspected to be expired caustic soda that may have arisen as a consequence of over-stocking and or poor storage or exposure to moisture due to its hygroscopic nature at the KRPC warehouse,” the report read.
The report further said: “Caustic soda is a white odourless solid substance that is hygroscopic, that readily absorbs moisture from the air. This chemical is listed on the Right to know Hazardous Substances list and on the Special Health Substances List as a serious hazard because it is cited by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Department of Transportation, National Fire Protection Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency.”
The report noted that available materials indicate Caustic Soda is strongly corrosive (hazard class 8) and a powerful irritant which can cause severe burns and permanent damage to any tissue it contacts. The report said the death of birds from Biams Farms may be due to the inhalation of aerosols arising from exothermic reaction associated with raindrops on the chemical waste. The report also explains that dogs may have died due to the inhalation of aerosols and irritation due to skin contact.
The report, which was signed by the President and Lead Consultant, Yakubu Tilde, also posed some questions regarding effective monitoring and supervision of contractors by KRPC’s Safety Department. Left with no option, some members of the community dragged the KRPC, NNPC and Chembache Investments ltd to court. Among the plaintiffs were Shuaibu, Saidu Lima and Biams Farms. Among several declarations and reliefs sought by the plaintiff was general damages of N25 billion.
A briefcase company
In all the reports on the waste dump, all the blame has been laid at the feet of the contractor, Chembache investment Ltd. On June 22, 2012, the KRPC issued a query to the contractor which was answered by Chembache on July 5th. Part of the response reads: “We view the incident that occurred as an obvious omission on our part. It was not a deliberate act to create an unpleasant situation that would portray KRPC in bad light knowing full well that KRPC is a responsible corporate organisation.
“As you are aware, we have executed several jobs in your company in line with the terms and conditions of terms stipulated in the contract agreements and brief often before the commencement of any job. All these we have satisfactorily adhered to.
“What transpired in the course of executing the clean up site is highly regretted. We owe KRPC our sincere apologies for having dumped waste on an undesignated place. It was never our intention to create such an awkward and uncomfortable situation. We understand and acknowledge the mistake and resolving the matter,” the Managing Director, Chidi Onwuegbuche wrote.
But the ‘victims’ have raised series of questions regarding the qualification of the contractor Chembache Investment. When The Nation tried to get in touch with Chembache Investment, the company has only one listed address in Kaduna, which is Kaduna State Urban Planning Development Agency ( Kasupda) building, 73, Kachia Road, Kaduna South. The Nation was directed to ask for one Adaora.
When The Nation arrived at the address, there are more than 10 tenants in the building selling different goods, including a supermarket, a phone shop and a pharmacy. Several road side sellers lined the front of the building including a suya merchant. After many hours of fruitless search, The Nation was able to find Adaora and she did not look like an industrial waste disposal official. Chembache Investments, a leading contractor for the KRPC, a subsidiary of the NNPC, operates in Kaduna from a small shop in Kasupda building facing Kachia Road, where plastic chair, tables and buckets are sold.
Adaora, who claims to be a niece of Chidi Onwuegbuche, conceded that the shop belongs to Chembache Investments but that the Director had gone to Imo State for the New Year holiday. She said that was the official address of Chembache Investment Ltd and in the absence of the Director, she acts for the company. She refused to divulge any other information but on pressure, she agreed to call Onwuegbuche, who spoke to The Nation on telephone.
Onwuegbuche said: “Yes, it happened in 2012 and the waste was actually from the refinery; we were not instructed to dump it there. It was the villagers who wanted to get the woods that asked us to do so. It is not the whole waste and we don’t dump wastes in communities because we have where we dump them. The case is in court, we won the first round and they are suing us for N25billion now.”
The Nation went to KRPC office but without prior appointments was not allowed entry. The reporter made several phone calls to the mobile number of Idris Abdullahi, the Public Affairs Manager of KRPC, which went unanswered. Several text messages to his number were not answered as well until the time of going to press.
Because NESREA had conducted some tests on the wastes, The Nation met with the state coordinator, Sharif Ibrahim, who denied knowledge of the incident. Ibrahim said the agency was established in Kaduna in October 2013; therefore, he had no documents on the incident. He said his agency had asked for a meeting with KRPC but it has not gone through.
He acknowledged that the agency had worked in Inlowo village in Kachia local government in February 2014 over a complaint of oil polluted wells, which proved to be true. He said to verify the claims of the people of Rido, a test on the borehole should be conducted to verify the purity of the Rido water. He promised to carry out the test in February 2015.
There are questions if Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out by KRPC. Even though the company was established before the enactment of the law, the law demanded that an environmental audit should be done every three years. There must be health surveillance too; from all available information, it is not certain KRPC fulfilled any of these obligations.
Sources inside the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, (NOSDRA) said the agency had instructed KRPC to draw up a Gas Flare Out Strategy (GFOS) which should be submitted to the agency. KRPC is yet to do this, according to top sources.
A generation of abnormal children
There is a generation in Rido which has not known peace or good health. Many in this generation were born with disabilities or they simply grow into them. In the village, they are called the ‘smoke generation.’
Every child born after the refinery was built belongs to this generation. While those with the means have left the community, others with no choice remained. In Rido, it is a curse to be born here, almost. Not all the children survive to adulthood and many who did have one form of disability or the other. Take Hassana Nura, for example, at the age of four, she cannot talk and had a massive bow leg- a very common disability in children of Rido- and it seems her growth just suddenly stopped.
Nura was brought into the assembly of protesters and shown to The Nation. Questions were posed to her but she remained silent with a confused look on her face. Kabiru Shuaibu was brought. He had been developing a growth problem for nine years which had made his backside to carve inside, so he had to walk sideways. At the age of 10, he was just in Primary Two and had difficulty learning.
Nura and Kabiru are not the only children who stopped growing in Rido, Haruna Rabiu too. At the age of 16, he is a perfect picture of an eight-year-old. When he was brought, many of the adults kindly informed the reporter that he was no small boy despite his looks.
There were many children with speech problems, like 15-year-old Zainab Abubakar; she finds it difficult to construct words and her speech was halting. According to her mother, she was born with the speech problem and there was never a time she was able to speak freely. “There are about 200 children with this kind of sickness,” said Abdulrazak Lawal, who is also one of the village spokespersons.
For many months, little Zaharawu Liman had been kept inside the house by her parents, who claimed she was going blind. For fear of going blind, she was kept in darkness, buried in her fears which to the five-year-old seems to assume the form of reality every day.
When she emerged from her darkness, her face was swollen in places and her eyes were bloodshot red. It was apparent she was in pain and unaccustomed to the bright lights as she squinted severely in frustrated attempt to adjust her sight. Her right eye was particularly affected, dripping with sticky substances that had partially shut down the eye. To anyone seeing her for the first time, this disease would be an advance stage of Conjunctivitis. But the adults rejected this idea, insisting Zaharawu’s disease had gone on for many months.
Apart from the abnormality of a halt in growth development and other diseases, the parents of Rido have had to bury some of their children and the woman leader was very angry about it. She spoke excitedly and angrily in Hausa, using her hands in wild gesticulations to drive home her point. She accused the refinery of culpability in the deaths of the children of the village in Rido, death lurks around for the children and it usually gets them before they reach their teenage years.
70-year-old Sabo Maikaji should know. A wrinkled old man, aged more by poverty than anything else, he wore a dirty blue caftan under which two other apparels are visible, he pushed himself through the crowd and insisted on telling his sad story. The smoke that is coming from the refinery is killing us; two of my children died because of the flare they inhale, they had stomach upset and at the end, they started vomiting some black substances and before we can get them to the hospital, they died,” he said.
Maikaji’s two children Hajara and Yahaya, three and two years respectively died within three days of each other. That was seven years ago. But his case is still incomparable with that of Alhaji Saidu Liman, who lost three children to the deadly toxin allegedly from the KRPC.
“I lost my three children; after they inhaled the toxic waste, they started having stomach ache and before we can treat them they died,” Liman said. The names of the dead are: Mailafia, Sherif and Fatima all under 10 years old.
Nura Badamasi also had tales of woe about his children. In 2012, his wife gave birth to a set of twins but within weeks, one of them fell sick. “She fell ill and I held her to my chest and ran to the hospital. I was very afraid and determined to save her, but on the way, she died.
“The other one took ill as well; we took her to the general hospital but she did not survive. I lost my twins to the work of the refinery,” he said. But his woes were just beginning, his four older children also fell ill one after the other; the symptoms were all too common. It was the same symptoms with the other sick children in the village, that is, stomach ache, vomiting of black substances and then hospitalisation. Four of my children also fell sick and we had to transfer them to the general hospital in Sabon-Tasha where they were treated. Even now, from time to time they still fall sick,” he said.
Lababatu Sanni, found her way to the front of the crowd. She had a large blue hijab, which left only her babyish and pretty face. She did not smile even though a smile would have further lightened her pretty but sad face. Lababatu is 25 years old but she looked much younger, her problems began long ago when she was born with a speech defect which had refused to abate over the years. But this is the least of the worries of Lababatu, who though married with three children, lost two of them allegedly to the toxic dump on the community. It was the usual scenario: abdominal pains, vomiting and certain death.
Contaminated air and water
The people of Rido also complained about their source of water, which has allegedly been contaminated by oil residue from the refinery. They also complained about the air which they claimed had caused severe health problems for the children.
“If you dig a well, you will see many particles inside it and this has caused health problems for us, especially for the children. Now, in this village, those who can afford it drink pure water,” Harisu Habibu said. This is especially so for Islamic Scholar, Suleiman Abdulkadir, whose children fell sick and were hospitalised. “The doctor asked us the source of our drinking water and I told him. He said my children should not drink from that water again because it is contaminated,” he said.
It was a different sort of contamination that affected Ibrahim Mataki’s children, In August this year, he claimed to have spent about N200,000 to treat his children of various diseases. At Biba Hospital in Tundun Wada, his children were treated for several ailments, including abdominal pains. The same is also true for four-year-old Rabiatu Abubakar, who has fallen ill of constant fever and diarrhea.
In the whole of Rido, there are few cases that can match that of Amir Zuberu, a three-year-old invalid. According to his brother, Illiah, he has never spoken a word and has never walked.
Illiah brought his brother out and shielded his face against the sun. Amir is a curious case, his legs are weak and foundling, his head is bigger than his body and he cries all the time. Though three years, he looks like a ten-month-old baby.
Illiah told his story: “Amir was not born like this; in fact, he was not born in this village but one month after he was brought back in to this village, his problems started. We have gone to the hospital but there is no solution. I know it is because of the gas flare in this community, if not, why did he fall sick only when he came into this community?”
Some of the sick children never really get well. Such is the case with Abdullahi’s daughter, who has been bleeding for many months. “The doctors said it is the smoke that we inhale that is causing all these problems,” Abdullah said. In Rido, the children cry without ceasing, there is hardly a household without a sick child and in houses where there are no sick children, they are probably dead.
But the case is far from over, even though the KRPC was not in operation when The Nation visited the community, the villagers live in a temporary relief. “We dread when they will start again,” Abubakar Saheed said. He has cause to be anxious as he said his entire household fell sick during the toxic waste saga and has been in constant ill-health.
“When they flare the gas, in the afternoon it is heat and in the night you could see the black smoke. That is what we have been inhaling and it is the reason for all these sicknesses,” he said.
Some of the victims of the toxic wastes were said to have been treated at the Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital in Kaduna. The Nation met the Chief Matron, Hannatu Garba, who said the hospital has been undergoing renovation for two years and there would be difficulty in tracing the specific cases of the victims. “If you can get the cards, please bring them, that is the only way we can trace their case files,” she said.
In the meantime, the land is dry and dusty with the wind blowing in different directions. There is no evidence that Rido is a host community to an oil company, as the air had the scent of poverty, sickness and despair. There is another thing which is synonymous with Rido, however: “If you go around Rido, you only see cases of death,” Abubarkar said.
