Oil firms deliberately destroying Niger Delta’s environment – Diri

Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has lamented what he described as deliberate destruction of Niger Delta environment by oil companies operating in the region.

Governor Diri, who expressed displeasure over the decade-long environmental injustice in the region, said the situation was worsened by the unfair derivation sharing formula of the federal government to the oil producing states, which does not reflect the sufferings of the people and the damage to the region’s environment.

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The governor stated this during an online global conference on “The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the flora and fauna of the Niger Delta” to mark this year’s World Environment Day over the weekend.

The conference hosted by the Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment had discussants simultaneously in Yenagoa, Benin and Abuja.

The Acting Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, quoted the governor, who was represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, as saying that for a region that had continued to be degraded from activities of multinational oil companies, the Niger Delta people had been shortchanged from the proceeds of its rich and vast resources not only by the federal government but also the oil firms.

He said: “When other countries were recording reduction in oil activities, green house emission, pollution and gas flaring, the reverse was the case in Bayelsa State as it recorded death of lots of fishes during this coronavirus period in Akassa, Koluama, Agge and other states in the region.

“That is why we call for joint action from governors of the Niger Delta States in the struggle for a cleaner environment.

“We urge the people of Bayelsa State not to contribute to the environmental genocide in their localities but to shun illegal refining of crude products and embrace intellectual approach in the agitation for the clean-up of the region,” he said.

Speaking earlier, chairman of the occasion, the Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom, King Bubaraye Dakolo, Agada IV, said according to research, 100 million barrels of crude oil and about 20 trillion standard cubic feet of gas were being released into the aquatic environment of the Niger Delta.