BEVERLY HILLS, April 21, (THEWILL) – The Bayelsa State Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Iselema Gbalabiri, has once again reiterated the need for the International Oil Companies operating in the Niger Delta region to respect and implement the General Memorandum of Understandings (GMOUs) they entered with their host communities before they commenced their exploration and exploitation activities to avoid conflicts between them and their host communities.
Gbalabiri spoke in a press statement signed by Kwokwo Tariebi after an on-the-spot inspection tour of various oil spill devastated sites in Bayelsa with members of the Federal House of Representatives Committee on Oil Spillage, Clean-Up and Remediation, members of Bayelsa State House of Assembly and officials from the National Oil Spill, Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
The Environment Commissioner decried the level of environmental degradation that oil spillage caused to their environment and aquatic lives.
He also lamented that the people who were hosts to the oil companies were really suffering and living in abject poverty as a result of the neglect from the IOCs.
While enumerating some of the concomitant and militating problems of the people, he used the opportunity to plead with the Federal Government to construct roads and facilities in the hinterland of the riverine Southern Ijaw Local government Area.
He said the huge revenues the country was harvesting from these areas from oil exploration and exploitation over the years should be justified by the government ploughing all forms of developmental initiatives into the lives and land.
The House of Reps Committee Chairman, Honourable Amiru Tukur, after seeing for himself the pathetic condition of oil-producing communities and the degree of damage done by oil spillage in various communities assessed, assured Bayelsans of proper intervention from the Federal Government.
He added that this time around, there would be no pity party and that necessary actions would be taken to promptly solve the myriads of problems once and for all, while promising that the process would be transparent.
The entourage also visited other oil-spillage impacted communities such as Ikarama and Biseni, Sampou and Angiama, with incalculable damages to their sources of livelihood from polluted rivers and creeks.
