Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Members of Gelegele community in Ovia Northeast Local Government Area of Edo State, have demanded for an end to oil and gas exploration in their domain, as well as payment for the loss and damages to their environment which they have endured for over six decades of extractive activities.
The community members spoke in a meeting organized by Zero Waste Ambassadors, in collaboration with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria and the African Climate Justice, as part of the People Assembly Action towards the African Peoples Counter COP in Benin, the state capital.
Narrating the predicament of Gelegele community regarding oil and gas extraction, the President, Host Communities Network of Nigeria, Prince Barbs Pawuru, maintained that the years of oil and gas leakages, environmental destruction and neglect caused by oil companies must be accounted for.
Pawuru noted that the oil companies in Gelegele community have exploited their lands and the people without any benefit to them, while demanding for a compensation of N500billion for the damages they have suffered in the last six decades.
He said, “These companies have extracted from our communities for years and even built a gas flaring plant in the middle of the community, exposing the people to toxic acids and gas emissions that have polluted the lands, waters and the air we breath. The people of Gelegele community suffer diseases at different levels, ranging from heart conditions, skin diseases, loss of sight etc.
“Several efforts have been made to seek redress on these airing companies but have failed because the companies have employed a divide-and-rule system by awarding contracts to a selected few in the community, pitching them against our own people and against the well being and development of the people.”
Also speaking, the Women Leader of Gelegele community, Ms. Mary Fedigha, said women depend on fishing and farming for their survival, but we’re now left in poverty, hunger and starvation due to oil and gas extraction activities, which she said have destroyed their sources of livelihood.
Fedigha explained that despite hosting oil and gas industries, their children cannot have access to good education, neither have the graduates in the community been offered employment opportunities in the oil companies operating in the community.
“Because these oil and gas activities have done so much harm to the people, with nothing positive to show, there is no reason to continue with oil and gas extraction. The companies should be asked to leave the community.”
For his part, the Youth Leader of Gelegele community, Mr. Ebikena Milton, said the oil firms operating in Gelegele have refused to engage the services of the youths of the community hosting their business operations.
“Oil and gas is a lucrative business and thus these companies can provide soft loans to empower the youths, or scholarships to advance our education. But these companies would rather team up with a few people who they use to cause disunity and chaos in the land, to advance their business agenda.
“Years long of oil and gas extraction has only brought poverty, suffering, ailments and disunity to the people, rather than the promised development and growth, therefore we demand an outright end to oil and gas extraction in Gelegele community.”
Earlier, the Communication Officer of Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Ms. Elvira Jordan, said the meeting was imperative in line with the objectives of the African Peoples Counter COP, to document the experiences of host communities and their demands to the oil and gas industries, towards the upcoming 28th edition of the Conference of Parties, COP28.
Jordan explained that previous COPs only saw world leaders attend the event without addressing the plights of the host communities, such a environmental degradation and human rights abuses brought by oil and gas exploration activities.
