‘People With Connections, Political Power, Stealing N’Delta Oil’

An environmental activist and Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Mr Nnimmo Bassey, has said prominent people with international connections, security cover, and political power are behind oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
Bassey spoke, yesterday, while fielding questions from newsmen during a one-day “Oil Fields Community Dialogue/Training”, organised for residents of Ikot Ada Udo village in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State on issues of environmental pollution.
He said it was a big insult where people of the communities are accused of being the ones stealing the oil as well as causing an oil spill in their communities, stressing that all the local refineries combined won’t be able to finish refining 400,000 barrels of oil that were revealed to be stolen every day in the region.
He explained that his organisation is currently asking the international community to create a crime called “Ecocide” so that oil companies would be held accountable for oil spills.