The House of Representatives Thursday mandated its Committees on Safety Standards and Regulations and Upstream Petroleum to investigate incessant leakages and explosions from oil fields in the country.
It directed the committees to ascertain the causes and extent of gas leakages in order to forestall future occurrences.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Benjamin Kalu (APC, Abia) who said apart from destroying the ecosystem and killing the fishes in the affected places, there were also health challenges associated with the leakages and explosions which could only be ascertained through adequate laboratory examinations.
He expressed concern that reports from the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) had claimed that the explosions in the Niger Delta region were mostly due to poor operational safety standards of the vessels and oil facilities.