Environmentalist Tasks Osinbajo On Gas Flaring

An environmentalist in the Niger Delta, Mr. Iniwo  Wills has called on Acting President  Yemi Osinbajo to use his  executive  order to declare  December 31 2018  as deadline  for end to gas flaring  in the region.
Mr. Wills said this in an interview with newsmen  in Port Harcourt.
He said that an executive  order was required to put an end to constant  shifting of gas flaring deadlines  since  1970.
The environmentalist also said that the Acting President  could as well pronounce December 31, 2018 the final  irreversible  deadline for gas flaring if there are  genuine and compelling factors that could make the earlier date  unrealisable.
According to him, there is  an urgent need for  a compressive action to protect the environment and communities  in the Niger Delta region.
Mr. Wills maintained that such action  should be devoid of  politics.
He stressed the need for governments at all levels  to take a holistic action and approach to end pollution as well as  penalise individuals and corporate executives, stressing that individuals and regulatory executives who have  allowed  the continual oil pollution to be accepted as normal flaring in Nigeria should be sanctioned.
Wills urged Osinbajo to direct the Ministries  of Environment Petroleum  Resources, Health and Niger Delta Affairs to immediately initiate the conduct of an Independent holistic study.
“The study should be conducted by respectable consortium  of experts and  technical  organizations including  UNDP  and the WHO to ascertain  the cumulative  environmental, health and socio economic impact of oil and gas exploration on host and transit communities.
He urged governors of the  affected Niger Delta states to stop paying  lip-service to protection of the environment  as had  been  in the past.
Wills also advised  the Governors to begin to make the protection of communities and coastal  environment  their constitutional duty to the  people of the region.