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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 in general and Bayelsa State in particular to respect and implement the General Memorandum of Understandings they entered with their host communities so as to avoid conflicts between them and the communities.
According to a press statement, signed by Kwokwo Tariebi, the commissioner made this known during an on the spot inspection tour of various oil spill sites in the state with members of the House of Representatives Committee on oil spillage, Clean-up and Remediation, Bayelsa State House of Assembly and officials from National Oil Spill, Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
The Environment commissioner also while in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area decried the level of environmental degradation oil spills had caused to the environment and aquatic lives.
He noted that the people who are host to these oil companies are suffering, living in abject poverty as a result of the neglect from the IOCs.
While enumerating some of the problems faced by the people, Gbalabiri used the opportunity to plead with the Federal Government to come to their aid by constructing roads and other infrastructures in the hinterland of the riverine Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, adding that this is necessary considering the huge amount of money gotten from these areas from oil exploration and exploitation activities over the years.
The chairman of the ad-hoc committee on oil spillage, clean-up and Remediation, Mr Amiru Tukur, after seeing the pathetic conditions of oil producing communities for himself, and the degree of damage by oil spills in various communities, was able to assess the situation, and assured Bayelsans of proper intervention by the Federal government.
He added that “this time there would be no pity party,” and that necessary actions would be taken to solve myriads of problems once and for all in no distant time, while promising that the process will be transparent.
The entourage also visited other oil spill and environmentally impacted communities such as Ikarama and Biseni, Sampou and Angiama where the oil spillage has caused incalculable damage to their source of livelihood and rivers and creeks are polluted and environmental degraded.