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By Amos Odeh, Yenagoa
A group, Stakeholders Alliance for corporate responsibility (SACA) has faulted the Nigerian government and multinational oil companies operating in the Niger Delta over health hazards associated with exploitation and exploration activities.
Speaking to Journalists at the inauguration of the group’s Project Management Committtee (PMC), the executive director, SACA, Mr Kingsley Ozegbe, said that statistics available to his organization, through researches, revealed that in 2012 alone, about 16,000 neo-natal babies died in the Niger Delta region within one month of their birth, because “they were conceived within a 10km radius from sites of oil spills.”
He reiterated SACA’s commitment to creating awareness through periodic sensitization programmes, noting that with the volume of oil spills occurring in the production areas of the multinational firms, more infants stand at greater risks of deformity and possible death.
Ozegbe noted that further investigations by the group revealed that the effect of oil spill in the region have also led to the termination of pregnancies in every 13-19 pregnant women out of a total 1,000 studied as well as has impaired weight and height growth of children that survived neo-natal death.
Our correspondent learnt that the group, SACA, was formed and registered by an Irish priest, Rev’d Fr. Kevin O’ Hara, with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria as a non-governmental organisation in 2012 in a bid to finding solutions to curb Environmental problems inherent in the exploitation and exploration of oil by multinationals operating in the Niger Delta region.
The report of the research obtained by SACA and made available to Port Harcourt Mundial reads in part: “The aberrant exploitation of natural resources in the Niger Delta of Nigeria is posing serious threat to children’s lives, health and potentials to procreate at maturity.
“In 2017 a research carried out by Anna Bruedele and Roland Holder University of St.Gallen Switzerland on the effect of oil spills on infant mortality unveiled in 2012 revealed that about 16,000 neonatal babies died in the Niger Delta region within one month of their birth because they were conceived within a 10km radius from an oil spill site.
“But three years after the research publication, nobody is talking about the research findings in the region and oil spillages are becoming more endemic in the region and Bayelsa in particular.”
The Project Management Committee (PMC), inaugurated by the SACA, is to be chaired by the Bayelsa State chairperson, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Dr. (Mrs) Christiana MacDonald, while Eng. Iro Singer of the Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment is to serve as secretary.
