Environmental Pollution: Group urges FG to halt ecological genocide in Niger Delta 

A group, Coalition for a Cleaned Niger Delta (CCND) has called on the Federal Government, as a matter of priority, to put in place sustainable measures aimed at halting the ecological genocide currently going on in the Niger Delta region.

Besides, it stated that ecosystem in the communities and entire area, has been  plagued by unprecedented perennial pollution from oil activities, worsened by a highly conflicted and compromised environmental regulatory system in the past 70 years.

Nnimmo Bassey of Health of Mother Earth Foundation, in a joint press conference in Abuja, regretted that the festering devastation has projected and ranked the Niger Delta among the worst oil and gas polluted regions in the world.

Bassey urged President Bola Tinubu to uphold his sworn commitment to national renewal by calling for swift action to resolve the environmental genocide that has increasingly threatened the continued existence of the people of the region.

He said there were 16,263 oil spills in the past 17 years, accounting for about 823,483 barrel of oil split equivalent to 4,103 tanker tricks or over 130million litres of crude oil, released by National Oil Spill Detection Response Agency (NOSDRA).These estimates are usually grossly suppressed by operators.

Also speaking, Founding Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, Otive Igbuzor, said President Tinubu should be mindful of Nigeria’s numerous commitment to international treaties and conventions, including those on universal rights, climate change. among others.

He said a genuine action to clean up the Niger Delta would be an excellent progress report for the country and particularly Tinubu administration as the world gathers again at the next Climate Conference COP29, in about six months from now.

“The President should issue an Executive Order creating a Niger Delta Environmental Remediation Programme and Trust Fund.It can be, either independent of or domciled in the extant Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, currently overseeing the cleanup of Ogoniland,” he remarked.