The Bayelsa State Government has advocated stringent environmental laws for the protection and preservation of the environment against crude oil pollution and other activities occasioned by oil exploration and exploitation activities in the Niger Delta.<\/p>\n
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Governor Seriake Dickson, who made the assertion, when members of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, led by its Chairman, Major Lancelot Anyanya (rtd), paid him a courtesy visit on Tuesday in Government House, Yenagoa, said an environmental summit would be organized soon to discuss ways of mitigating the effects of oil and gas exploration and exploitation in the region.<\/p>\n
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He expressed his administration\u2019s commitment to collaborate with NOSDRA to facilitate the speedy passage of the amended act of the agency, which has undergone its first and second readings at the National Assembly.<\/p>\n
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Emphasizing the need for international oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to protect the environment, he decried the way and manner the environment was being abused\u00a0with\u00a0what he referred to as \u2018reckless abandon,\u2019 describing Bayelsa State as the most fragile and highly compromised area, where environmental pollution has devastated the ecosystem for several decades since the discovery of crude oil in 1956.<\/p>\n
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Governor Dickson explained that, the health implications arising from such environmental pollution necessitated the establishment of the toxicology institute to better appreciate the magnitude of the problems facing the people.<\/p>\n
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Granting the request of NOSDRA for a functional office in the state, Governor Dickson called for the siting of the headquarters of the agency in Bayelsa, as the state is host to the bulk of oil and gas operations in the Niger Delta.<\/p>\n
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As part of efforts to address environmental problems, the Governor proposed that the Federal Government should build receptacles to evacuate crude oil recovered from illegal refineries as well as design mechanisms for effective and proper remediation of impacted areas.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI have said it before that what has been going on in Bayelsa State, the Niger Delta and in all oil producing areas concerning the levity with which oil companies treat the issues of the environment and the maintenance of environmental and health standards.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen you look at all of these and particularly listening to your chilly statistics, which I believe is only a tip of the iceberg, one is really left with no other conclusion than that, we are actually facing a case of environmental terrorism.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhat has been going on in the Niger Delta since the discovery of oil; a situation where more than one spill takes place in Bayelsa every day, going by what your statistics is telling us and all these sites are treated with reckless abandon and the environment is left to fend for itself, the livelihood and in fact the lives of the people and the ecosystem are not attended to. What then is more of terrorist action than this?<\/p>\n
This is an opportunity again for us to remind ourselves that we all have a duty to work together as government to government and it is also an opportunity for us to call on all\u00a0stakeholders especiallythe oil companies, regulatory agencies and everybody to be alive to the need to protect our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In his remarks, Chairman of NOSDRA, Major Lancelot Anyanya (rtd), explained that the visit was aimed at strengthening the existing collaboration between government and the agency on efforts at curbing oil spills and its attendant effects.<\/p>\n
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He commended the state government for initiating a baseline study on the toxicological impact of oil exploration on the Bayelsa environment and called for support, especially in the area of developing effective institutional framework for enforcement of appropriate legislations.<\/p>\n
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Also contributing, the Director -General of NOSDRA, Dr. Peter Idabor, advocated the amendment of relevant laws to alleviate the suffering of oil bearing communities.<\/p>\n
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According him, research findings indicate that the rate of oil spill in Bayelsa, is more devastating than that of\u00a0Ogoni\u00a0in Rivers State, which has been widely reported, adding that the state records about 40 spill cases in a month.<\/p>\n
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Daniel Iworiso-Markson<\/b><\/p>\n
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Bayelsa State<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bayelsa State Government has advocated stringent environmental laws for the protection and preservation of the environment against crude oil pollution and other activities occasioned by oil exploration and exploitation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n