UNEP Report: RSG Plans New Water Scheme For Ogoni, Okrika … FG Gets 30-Day Ultimatum Over Implementation

Following the report released by the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), indicating serious underground water pollution in Ogoniland and environs two weeks ago, the Rivers State Government has promised to provide potable water for the affected communities to forestall a breakout of epidemic in the state.

Speaking in a live radio programme last Friday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State Governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi said the State Government was bent on protecting the lives of the ordinary people and would  commence  distribution of potable water through tankers in the mean time, while working out measures to install a permanent water scheme in the  five Local government areas of Gokana,Eleme,Okrika, Tai and Khana heavily affected by oil pollution.

He stated that the State Government would liaise with the Federal Government and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria on ways to provide safe drinking water in the next three weeks.

His words, “even if you find solution to water in these local government areas, in Ogoni and Oyigbo, the same situation abound in other coastal communities of the state. So the Rivers State Government is ready to carry out a water scheme that goes round all the communities in River State to ensure that they are insured from drinking contaminated water.”

Asked what his position was on the UNEP report Amaechi replied,” our position was quite clear: We identify the problems of our people. At least this has gone a long way to confirm that Ogoni and other parts of the Niger Delta are polluted whether by Shell or by other oil firms”.

Promising the citizenry of efforts to address the problem, he assured that his administration would prevail on the Federal Government and Shell to fund UNEP to carry out a comprehensive environmental remediation exercise in both the flora and fauna of the affected areas noting that no part of the state is spared from the menace.

In addition, he emphasised that lasting measures would be put in place by the government as it would evolve laws to penalise oil firms damaging the environment, while blaming poverty for the increased oil theft witnessed in the region.

Meanwhile, Ogoni people  have threatened a non-violent mass action  against  the Federal Government if no action  is taken towards the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) key recommendations within the next thirty days.

They called on the Federal Government to immediately implement the key recommendations of the UNEP’s report, to demonstrably show that it is not only the violent option that can attract reward in Nigeria.

Ogoni people also described as callous and inhuman the response by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to the UNEP’s report, which they said dwelt mainly on its hackneyed blame game.

They  therefore demanded an immediate apology from the Anglo/Dutch oil giant (SPDC) for the deaths and health hazards its activities had caused and is still causing in Ogoniland’s four Local Government Areas of Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme.

Rising from a special congress meeting last Saturday, at the Peace and Freedom Centre, Bori, in Khana LGA of Rivers State, and traditional headquarters of Ogoniland, the Ogonis, in an eight-point communiqué signed by the President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Ledum Mitee, who is also the chairman of the Niger Delta Technical Committee (NDTC), expressed disappointment over the response so far from the Federal Government.

The congress, attended by over five thousand Ogoni people, reviewed  recent developments in the Ogoni struggle for justice, especially the developments in the case brought by the people of Bodo, Ogoni in Gokana LGA of Rivers state, in the United Kingdom courts against Shell and the UNEP’s report on the environmental assessment of Ogoniland.

The communiqué read in part: “Considering the highlighted emergency of the situation of environmental devastation in Ogoni and the health hazards to which Ogonis are exposed on a daily basis, congress expresses disappointment at the responses so far from the government.

“Congress mandates MOSOP to immediately embark on mass mobilisation of the Ogoni people towards an eventual non-violent mass action, if after 30 days no action is taken towards the implementation of the recommendations.

“Congress, similarly, mandates MOSOP to report the dire situation to all our national and international partners and friends and to seek their continued support.

Rivers State Governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi speaking at the flag-off ceremony of the quarterly one day National Crusade against Polio at the Okija Primary Healthcare Centre in Diobu, Port Harcourt, at the weekend