The Ijaw Diaspora Council, (IDC) on Friday called on the Federal government and international community' to halt ongoing oil leak at an oilfield at Nembe in Bayelsa.
It will be
recalled that Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Exploration Company on Nov 5
reported a major leak from its Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 located in Nembe Bayelsa.
The oil firm
had in a statement issued by its Spokesman, Mathew Ndianabasi described the
incident as a massive one said that it was mobilizing local and international
efforts to end the ongoing leak.
The group
with headquarters in New Jersy, USA in a
statement issued by Pastor Kenneth Tamara, Director of Public Relations, IDC
advocated for immediate action before the global Climate Conference (COP26)
rounds off in Glasgow.
The group
advocated international emergency action on the massive explosion of accumulated
gas and oil from a non-producing well within OML 29
The IDC stated that Interim inquiries from
petroleum experts indicate that the incident was caused by maximum pressure
from piled-up gas in the well, which has witnessed several spills in previous
years.
“As
described by the operator of the unattended oil well, Aiteo Eastern Exploration
and Production Ltd, parading global awards for corporate social
responsibility.
"The magnitude of this incident is of an
extremely high order."
“The
indigenous peoples' entire mangrove forest and marine environments are
adversely affected by the same methane gas that world leaders have gathered in
Scotland to cut emissions.
“What is
happening now in Nembe is the opposite of whatever the Nigerian Government
promised as its nationally determined contribution to global climate action.
“In a
neighboring oil field, coastal communities in Brass Local Government Area in
Nigeria have also been ravaged for several weeks by gas spewing continually
from another oil rig site named The Adriatic.
“There has
been virtually no official action from the petroleum and environment ministries
and agencies, as usual.
“For strange
considerations, including conflicted and incestuous interests, Nigeria's fossil
industry regulators have routinely looked away as companies routinely gas and
pollute hundreds of Ijaw, Ogoni, and other local communities in the Niger
Delta.
“These
disasters occurring during COP 26 are graphic examples of Nigeria's insincerity
and lack of capacity for climate security, environmental justice, and
indigenous minorities' protection.
“We can no
longer allow this catastrophic environmental destruction to go on without a
consolidated international response,” the statement read in part..
The group urged
the Presidency, the United Nations and United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), and world leaders to take immediate action to cause the Government of
Nigeria to stop the ongoing pollutions
in Bayelsa in parallel with the COP26.
They further
called on the international environmental rights and climate change movement to
commence ecological remediation.
The
interventions, they said, should include economic reparations and activate
detailed investigations.
“The
superintending Nigerian ministries and departments are too weak to act to
determine and sanction defaulting operators.
“Their
officers and the recalcitrant regulators have encouraged their repeated crimes
of ecocide.
“Therefore,
we demand that trusted international bodies lead the investigations, and
commence ecological remediation and economic reparations.
“COP26 cannot
be a success without global action to stop
the current ecocide in Nembe, Nigeria,” the group stated.
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