The Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria (ARFAN), who are victims of the Shell Bonga Oil Spill from the five Niger Delta States, have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the multi-national oil company operating in the region to ensure complete remediation and end environmental pollution in the area.
Addressing journalists on behalf of the group in Benin on Tuesday, the Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Bar. Chima Williams lamented that the activities of the oil companies have destroyed their main source of livelihood and posed a serious health hazard to the residents.
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Williams in a letter to President Buhari said the positive steps taken by the President in environmental protection and preservation over the years are commendable.
He said, “We appealed 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 asset.”
Williams also called on the president to bring all the parties together including oil companies such as Shell, Exxon Mobil, Nigerian Agip Oil Company and Total Energy; 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 multinational oil companies are running away from their responsibilities of restoring the Nigerian environment to the way it was before their extractive adventures in the name of divestment should also be addressed and discouraged until the needful is done.
Chima the winner of the 2022 Goldman Environment Prize Winner for Africa, said he trusts that president Buhari will bring succour to the fishermen who are victims of the Bonga oil spill before his administration winds up.
