Anguish as communities testify before Bayelsa oil and gas panel

Oil exploration in Nigeria has helped in boosting the economy of the country and contributing immensely to the wealth of the nation, but this is not without much suffering in host communities occasioned by incessant oil spillage and gas flaring which pollute the environments including sources of drinking water, posing serious danger to the people. […]

Oil exploration in Nigeria has helped in boosting the economy of the country and contributing immensely to the wealth of the nation, but this is not without much suffering in host communities occasioned by incessant oil spillage and gas flaring which pollute the environments including sources of drinking water, posing serious danger to the people.

In the Niger Delta region, there is hardly any community that does not have a negative effect of oil spillage and gas flaring.

In the past, fishing was the main occupation in the region, it was the source of income that many families used in footing the educational bills of their children and other expenses, but today, the business is not as lucrative as it used to be, due to incessant oil spillage which has destroyed aquatic live.

Experience in Bayelsa communities become even more pathetic, as almost all the communities in the eight local government areas of the state have bitter experiences from the oil spillage and gas flaring.

Worried by the incessant complaints by the people, Governor Seriake Dickson had in April this year constituted a commission of inquiry, tagged; “Bayelsa oil and gas commission”, which drew membership from foreign forensic and environmental experts to look into the plight of the people and proffer lasting solutions.

The commission chaired by Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York in the United Kingdom, has already made fact-finding visits to several communities affected by environmental pollution, including Imiringi in Ogbia LGA  and Azuzuama in Southern Ijaw LGA where Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has its biggest installation.

During the public evidence session held by the probe panel last weekend, the suffering of the oil producing communities in the state and Niger Delta region was further brought to the fore, with the people laying damning accusations against the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), of connivance with multinational oil companies in the destruction of their environment, leaving them impoverished.

Four communities that mostly suffer devastating oil spills include Babragbene, Lasukugbene and Oyeregbene in Southern Ijaw and Mbikiba in Brass LGA. They all made  accusations during the public hearing with members of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission (BSOEC) at Oyeregbene community.

The communities also demanded a clean-up of their lands and waterways as well as payment of compensation by oil multinationals operating in their areas, saying federal agencies such as DPR and NOSDRA were biased towards oil companies whenever spills occur.

They claimed that the joint investigation and verification reports were not always representative of the actual incidents of spills that destroy their sources of livelihood.

The president of the Ijaw Association of Oil and Gas Producing Communities, Comrade Yabrou Tou, who spoke on behalf of the aggrieved communities, bemoaned the total neglect of host communities by the oil multinationals despite series of appeals on the effects of the spills.

Tou, who wept as he narrated his community’s ordeal, revealed how he was dragged before a court in Abuja for reporting Chevron to the Nigerian Human Rights Commission for refusing to clean up a spill that occurred from its facility.

Comrade Tou said the incident occurred in 2015 when an oil rig spilled its content for six months non-stop.

He said: “The oil firm refused to pay compensation after initially accepting responsibility for the damage to the environment, saying it occurred on their Right of Way (ROW).

“The spills re-occurred in 2018 with the company initially accepting responsibility but later reneged on its promise to pay compensation because according to them, members of the community tampered with their facilities at the spill sites.”

Also speaking, Pastor Ofongo Alamene and a fisher, Mrs Flora Soridei, called on the multinational companies to live up to their corporate social responsibility by providing amenities like potable water, electricity, healthcare and paying compensation.

“They also know the level of ignorance of the communities. They get them to sign the wrong documents which render them defenceless when they avoid repairing their pipelines that are long overdue. Some of the pipelines have stayed up to 40 years whereas their lifespan is 20 years.”

Pastor Alamene accused the oil majors of non-implementation of the terms of their General Memorandum of Understanding (GMOU) signed with host communities.

He said: “No medical or material support is given to victims of oil spills while projects promised in the GMOUs are either haphazardly done or abandoned midway with flimsy excuses.”

The community leaders reported that Shell removed Oyeregbene community from the list of beneficiaries of its GMOU because of claims of missing equipment.

They also said Agip provided a six-classroom block in the community but abandoned the construction of a jetty and did a one-kilometre concrete road only half way.

The community leaders expressed gratitude to Governor Seriake Dickson for setting up the commission to address their plight.

Bayelsa State Commissioner for  Environment, Mr Ebipatei Apaingolo, said the commission was established to examine the impact of oil exploration activities on host communities in the state.

According to him, the oil companies have been neglecting their responsibilities to clean up the environment and pay compensation to affected communities.

Already, over 60 affected communities have presented evidence of environmental damage by multinational oil companies to the commission for possible redress.

Chairman of the commission, Archbishop Sentamu,  decried the lack of political will on the part of the Nigerian government in addressing environmental devastation in the Niger Delta, saying the time had come for total cleansing and remediation of the affected communities.

“The rest of the international community cannot just turn a blind eye. The pollution that has gone on in this particular state has affected the global village,” he said.

He urged the community leaders to continue to be resilient in the midst of their challenges, adding that the commission under his leadership would make the right recommendations to the state government.