Conference wants Ecological Funds Office out of Presidency

The delegates resolved this at plenary while considering and adopting committee on environment’s report.The Ecological Funds Office, established to address ecological challenges, has been reduced to a slush fund by various administrations and the National Assembly has been probing its finances ever since.The conference said the ministry must ensure that the fund is specifically used […]

The delegates resolved this at plenary while considering and adopting committee on environment’s report.
The Ecological Funds Office, established to address ecological challenges, has been reduced to a slush fund by various administrations and the National Assembly has been probing its finances ever since.
The conference said the ministry must ensure that the fund is specifically used to address ecological problems.
In a bid to control flood and its devastating effects, the conference agreed that two new dams be built in the lower end of River Niger; and that flooding be declared as annual natural disaster in the areas they are likely to occur.
Conference also resolved that penalty for gas flaring should be paid to the affected communities and not to the federal government as has been the practice.
Also, it was decided that communities within the National Park areas across the country are to be resettled in line with the laws establishing the parks.
Delegates also agreed that a special agency be established by the federal government for the clean-up of the Niger Delta, particularly areas identified by international environmental bodies as badly affected by oil spills.
However, the conference resolved that the federal government should, as a matter of national urgency, start implementation of the UNEP report on Ogoni environmental problems without further delay.
But the conference rejected the recommendation by the committee that sinking of boreholes should be prohibited across the country.
It also rejected the committee’s recommendation that environmental matters be moved to Exclusive list
During the consideration of the report, prominent lawyer Chief Mike Ahamba raised issues of the indiscriminate sinking of boreholes in the country with its attendant health hazards on the people.