The Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria (ARFAN), Niger Delta chapter, which members are victims of the Shell Bonga oil spill, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the multi-national oil companies operating in the region to ensure complete remediation and end environmental pollution in the area.
Addressing journalists on behalf of the group in Benin yesterday, the Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Bar Chima Williams, lamented that the activities of the oil companies had destroyed their main source of livelihood and posed serious health hazards to residents.
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Chima, in a letter to President Buhari, said the positive steps taken by the president in environmental protection and preservation over the years was commendable.
The letter reads in part: “We appeal to the president to ensure that petroleum extractive companies are compelled to live up to their responsibility of restoring the Nigerian environment. They should put money down to solve the environmental problem they created before divesting their assets.”
He also called on the president to bring all the parties together, including oil companies such as Shell, Exxon Mobil, Nigerian Agip and TotalEnergies and the victims of their operations, relevant government agencies and departments to discuss workable solutions to the environmental pollution arising from their operational methodologies in the country.
According to him, a situation where the oil companies are running away from their responsibility of restoring the Nigerian environment to the way it was before their extractive adventures should also be addressed and discouraged until the needful is done.
