Ending Kpo-Fire In Rivers

Recently, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Asari-Toru Local Government Council, Barrister Tubotamuno Dick took a bold step towards ending environmental pollution currently ravaging parts of Niger Delta region, especially Rivers State.
Speaking during a peace carnival in Buguma, headquarters of the local government area, penultimate Monday, the Caretaker Committee Chairman gave two weeks ultimatum to operators of illegal refineries, popularly known as Kpo-fire to shut down their illegal refining businesses or face the full wrath of the law.
The council boss promised taking such perpetrators head-on through land, sea or air to-stop them from their nefarious activities which have adversely affected the environment.
The Tide salutes the courage and boldness of the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Asari-Toru Local Government Council, to stand up against such illicit activities that have brought so much damage to the Niger Delta environment.
We, therefore, urge the Caretaker Committee boss to walk the talk by not giving in to any form of blackmail, pressure, intimidation or inducement from any quarter.
We say this against the backdrop of environmental and health harzards illegal refining of petroleum products has wrecked on the Niger Delta region, particularly Rivers State.
It is unfortunate that despite the efforts made by Rivers State Government in collaboration with security agencies to check these illegal businesses, the trend seems to be on the rise.
It is no longer news that illegal refineries exist in the region. For some time now, illegal refineries with multiple dumps have been discovered and destroyed at Alakiri and some other parts of Rivers State.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the well-endowed ecosystem of the Niger Delta with its huge potentials of sustaining abundant flora and fauna, as well as wide variety of agricultural opportunities, has been thoroughly abused and degraded since oil and gas operations began in the 1950s.
It is against this backdrop we believe that the over five million inhabitants of Rivers State cannot continue to be exposed to these human induced environmental and health hazards. Already, the amount of harm done to both the environment and the people since the advent of oil and gas exploration in the region is really enormous.
The incidence of black soot that is currently permeating the whole atmosphere in the State and beyond, calls for more serious and decisive action, such as the one by the Asari-Toru Local Government Caretaker Committee Chairman. This is imperative in view of the prediction of health experts that the on-going black soot in the State may give rise to high risk of cancer in the next few years, apart from its effect on life expectancy and other respiratory and lung ailments.
It is in the light of this that we call on the leadership of other local government areas in Rivers State to borrow a leaf from their Asari-Toru counterpart to fight kpo-fire business in the State.
We also call on the security agencies and other stakeholders such as ex-Niger Delta agitators, traditional rulers, amongst others, to catch-in on this proactive move by the Asari-Toru Local Government boss and synergize to tackle the menace of illegal refineries.
We particularly appeal to operators of illegal refineries to place the health and future of their people above temporary economic gains and desist from such activities. We cannot afford to mortgage our collective future at the expense of human lives and survival of our environment.
The Tide is aware of many lives that have been lost in the process of illegally refining petroleum products and Rivers State cannot afford to lose more lives at this very challenging moment of consolidating the socio-economic and infrastructural gains of the Governor Nyesom Wike administration.
On its part, the Federal Government should, as a matter of urgency, make good its promise of incorporating operators of illegal refineries in the region into the formal crude oil refining sector.
We consider it worrisome that since the inception of the oil industry in Nigeria more than 50 years ago, there has been no demonstration of genuine concern on the part of government, let alone the oil operators, to effectively control environmental and health problems associated with the industry.
We, therefore, call on the Federal Government to go beyond promises and speedily establish the modular refineries to incorporate operators of illegal refineries.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State government, in collaboration with the leadership of the local government councils, should also find a way of engaging operators of illegal refineries in other skills to discourage them from the act.