Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (ERA./FoEN) on Tuesday urged Bayelsa oil communities to shun vandalism of pipelines in their bid to seeking redress for oil spills.
ERA/FoEN, an environment focused Non Governmental Organization (NGO) advocated the position at an Environmental Parliament with selected representatives of oil bearing communities in Bayelsa.
Mr Chima Williams, Head of Legal Resources Department at ERA/FoEN observed that resorting to destruction of oil facilities in the agitation for redress for oil pollution was counterproductive and devastates the sites further.
He noted that pipeline vandalism was criminal and illegal and attracts no compensation to the communities whose environment and livelihood are adversely affected.
Williams said that the NGO would offer legal assistance to communities that suffered from oil pollution incidents that were not traceable to sabotage.
He explained that ERA/FoEN was currently assisting Ikebiri community in Southern Ijaw LGA, Bayelsa to get redress for the 2010 oil leak from oilfields operated by Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC).tusing able
He said that the NGO had brought officials of the oil firm to the negotiating table using conflict resolution skills developed by the rights group in its over 20 years of work in oil communities in the Niger Delta.
He noted that there were many non-destructive means of drawing attention to pollution incidents like peaceful protests; sit ins advocacy, name and shame amongst others that have proved effective in getting response from oil firms.
Addressing the Environmental Parliament, Mr Iniruo Wills, a former Commissioner for Environment in Bayelsa regretted that the oil industry is being run for profit to the detriment of the host communities.
He said that federal and state governments were the major beneficiaries of oil revenue while a residual part trickles down to the communities whose livelihoods are often threatened by pollution from the oil industry.
Wills noted that there was an urgent need to clean up the Niger Delta environment before diversifying the economy into agriculture currently being canvassed as a way out of the current economic recession.
“In the Niger Delta, region there is a need to declare a state of emergency on the environment and make efforts to clean up the environment before the concept of diversification can happen.
“The Director-General of the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) said that more than 1,000 oil spills occur annually in Bayelsa making the state the most polluted in the Niger Delta region.
“The lack of interest by state governments in the Niger Delta governments in the environment and is inexcusable, since 1999, we have been governed by our own people so we must hold them accountable,” Wills said.
Also Mr Roland Kiente, who hails from Peremabiri in Southern Ijaw LGA noted that the oil communities were excluded from the oil industry adding that the proposed host community equity could be a panacea to vandalism.
Kiente noted that the communities remained at the receiving end of the adverse effects of oil exploration which had threatened their farmlands and waters by pollution adding that clean up of the Niger Delta required urgent attention.
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