The Board of Trustees, Management and Staff of the Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN) has posited that the anti-gas flaring (Prohibition and Enforcement) bill, which has passed second reading at the House of Representatives, represents the true yearnings of Niger Delta communities that have been experiencing gas flares along with its implications.
This was one of the resolutions from EDEN inaugural board/staff retreat held in Benin City, the Edo State capital recently.
“Gas flaring in the Niger Delta region has equally led to public health issues as natives of host communities where the gas flare stacks are sited suffer respiratory illnesses, severe itching and other ailments that have evolved over time and contribute to the declining life expectancy in the region. Currently, life expectancy in the Niger Delta where oil facilities are located is 41 years, 10 years lower than the national average.
“We have equally noticed a trend attributable to the oil industry which, is the setting ablaze of oil spill impacted environment instead of proper clean up and remediation as is the standard practice globally. As we speak, this is the current situation at a site operated by Oando at Ogboinbiri, Bayelsa State. The site of the spill supposedly cleaned up went up in flames in the early hours of Monday, 9th December, 2024,” EDEN submitted.
On oil multinationals divestment from the Niger Delta, EDEN stressed: “We insist that no oil corporation should be allowed to divest from the delta until it takes responsibility for its toxic legacy of pollution. They must also decommission abandoned oil infrastructure. In similar vein, buyers of the toxic assets of the divesting firms must be compelled to accept the liabilities of the former owners of the onshore operations.”
EDEN called for an immediate halt to the divestments, while pledging its “readiness to give legal support to communities that are against divestment without clean-up, remediation and compensation.”
Talking about what it described as the solid minerals sector time bomb, EDEN want “the federal government to explore the possibility of amending the NOSDRA Act to accommodate solid minerals under its umbrella, changing its name to reflect the modification.”
In conclusion, EDEN asserted that “to avoid a repeat of the Niger Delta mistake, there should be an order for decommissioning of all mining pits/sites not later than one week after cessation of operations at the mining site. Failure to comply with this should be considered a criminal offence which should be punished with jail term, delicensing of a licensed lease holder and confiscation of all materials found at the site.”
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