– Accuse oil firms of divesting to abdicate responsibility
Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF has said that host communities in Niger Delta region must be part of the conversation on the ongoing divestment of onshore oil and gas assets, by the international oil companies.
Executive Director of HOMEF, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, said it was an insult and unacceptable for oil multinationals to divest from communities without being accounatble first for the health and environmental damages their activities have caused the region in the last six decades.
Bassey speaking in Port Harcourt at a workshop organized by HOMEF on the Implications of Petroleum Industry Act and Divestment on Community People, urged the government to defend the interests of the communities, by ensuring that the Niger Delta region was remediated by the polluters, before they can leave.
He lamented that even the local companies buying the oil assets from the multinationals, were just as irresponsible and reckless like the IOCs.
“On the issue of divestment, we believe it’s a big insult on our People, for oil multinationals after destroying the Niger Delta environment for over six decades, to think of divestment without discussing, with the host communities.
“Most communities are not aware that the IOCs are leaving, they get to hear from those who are buying the assets from them, and we believe that they are doing this so as to avoid responsibilities. So we are calling on the government defend our people.
“We insist that the IOCs cannot move away without being held accountable for the damage they’ve done to the Niger Delta environment and to the health of our people; with things they’ve done in the past and what they are currently doing, they (IOCs) can’t just wash their hands off or say they’re handing over to the local companies, who are just as bad as them, it’s unacceptable.
The HOMEF boss regretted that the IOCs were divesting onshore and shallow waters into the deep offshore, where they have less oversight, in order to avoid accountability.
“But the government must understand the fact that whatever happens in the deep offshore affects everybody onshore, cause pollution doesn’t respect whether a deep water or shallow water. It affects us all, it affects the fish.”
Also, the Executive Director of We The People, Mr Ken Henshaw, in his presentation accused oil multinationals, particularly SPDC and ExxonMobil of abdicating responsibility after almost 70years of environmental degradation in the region, because the people have found a way of holding them accountable by suing them in European courts.
Henshaw warned that if the Niger Delta was not part of the conversation on Local divestment plans, the region would end up with stranded communities destroyed by oil, which would take another 500 years for such communities to be remediated and restored.
“Are they (oil multinationals) divesting or taking criminal flight? After almost 70years of environmental degradation, resource theft, deprivement of livelihoods, the IOCs are leaving without announcement or consultation with the people.
“The major reason they are leaving is to abdicate responsibility, especially since oil is no longer as profitable as it used to be. They are also leaving because for the first time, members of the host communities have found a way of making them (IOCs) pay, by dragging them to European courts to get justice.”
Follow us on twitter
