Microbial activities are essential for the restoration of soil contaminated with hydrocarbons,
their roles includes biotransformation and mineralization of petroleum products into harmless compounds. In this
study eighty six soil samples from fifteen auto-mechanic workshops within Ilorin metropolis were collected. These
were analyzed by selective enrichment technique, resulted in the isolation of five bacterial species which are
Acinetobacter
sp,
Flavobacterium
sp,
Pseudomonas
sp.,
Serratia
and
Bacillus
sp. Bioremediation of the soil
microcosms was designed for 2months using mixed culture of the isolates. TVC, Protein, Dehydrogenase and
lipase activities were used as bioindicators for the bioremediation processes. Highest TVC, Protein and
Dehydrogenase activities were recorded in four week as 163.15μgTPFg
-1soil,6.3×10
7and5.53mg/g were obtained
respectively at pH of 7.17 and gradually declined while lipase activities and percentage of oil was highest in week
six as 65.41% and4.72unit/g. These findings have environmental implication towards developing a bioremediation
protocol that could be exploited for cleaning oil polluted soil
