FG sends experts to Ogun as gas leaks keep sending students to hospital

The Federal Government has sent a team of technical experts to Ogun State to find out why gas keeps seeping into the ground around schools in the Ijebu area, sending students to hospital again and again.

The team, put together by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), began work with a joint briefing and site visit in Ijebu Ode on Saturday.

The NUPRC team lead, Prosper Okonedo, an Assistant Director at the commission, said the committee was set up about two weeks ago on the instruction of the commission's Chief Executive, Mrs Oritsemeyawa Eyesan, after the state government did its own initial assessment and submitted a report.

Okonedo said similar gas seepage has been confirmed in Delta State and is being studied in a Rivers State community. But for Ogun, he said, the source is not yet certain.

"We cannot really say what it is right now. That is why we are here," he said.

What we know so far

Ogun's Commissioner for Environment, Mr Ola Oresanya, said the gas is coming from beneath the ground, not from a pipeline.

"There is no gas pipeline at Owode in Ikenne, and there is no gas pipeline around Ijebu-Omu where these things are happening. It is coming from the upper crust," he said.

He said the problem is not limited to Ogun, with similar reports in Rivers, Delta and Osun states. He asked residents not to panic and said there are no immediate plans to move people out of the affected communities.

Prof. Philip Ikhiane of Olabisi Onabanjo University, who leads the state's technical team, said early geological work and remote sensing found underground features that could be faults, fractures or joints. These, he said, may be pathways for natural gas to rise to the surface.

The state government had earlier identified the gas as methane.

The incidents have hit schools hard. More than 100 students in Ijebu Ode, Ago Iwoye and Ijebu Igbo were taken to hospital after breathing the gas, including at the State Hospital in Ijebu Ode and the General Hospital in Ijebu Igbo.

Schools affected include Ijebu Igbo Girls Grammar School, Anglican Girls Grammar School in Ijebu Ode and Itamerin Comprehensive High School in Ago Iwoye. Others named in earlier incidents are Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School at Epe Garage, Ijebu Ode, and St Anthony Grammar School in Ijebu Imusin.

The first incident in April affected about 40 students, according to reports. More than 120 were hospitalised in May, and 69 more on June 1.

A teacher at one of the schools, who did not want to be named, said the gas struck around 10am. "The students and the staff started inhaling this gas and began to have difficulty in breathing and were fainting," the teacher said.

What happens next

The NUPRC team will visit the sites and write a report on what is causing the emissions and how to stop them. For parents and teachers in Ijebu land, the immediate question is whether schools can be made safe before the next incident.