A non-governmental organisation, the Environmental Rights Action (ERA)/Friends of the Earth Nigeria has condemned the ongoing divestment of International Oil Companies (IOCs) in the Niger Delta region after the exploitation and devastation of the region.
The executive director of ERA, Mr Chima Williams, said this in his remarks at a town hall meeting with representatives of civil right groups across Akwa Ibom in Uyo.
Williams decried the health hazards and effect on aquatic animals the activities of the IOCs has caused the good people of Niger Delta region.
He expressed displeasure that for over six decades of oil exploration in the region and its consequences on the region, the IOCs now want to abandone the region and escape to the offshore to avoid taking their responsibilities of cleaning the region.
Williams said the level of environmental pollution, oil spillage and gas flaring which Niger Delta region had suffered in the hands of multinational oil companies, divestment was not best option for now.
He said the activities of IOCs in the Niger Delta region had destroyed the aquatic life and caused untold health hazards and even shortened the life span of the people of the region.
“Oil companies are divesting from onshore oil fields and moving further offshore and away from communities, while national companies are buying off the oilfields left by the oil majors, without clear provisions about who is liable for historical contaminations and related socio-ecological issues.
“The over 30 million people who live in the oil and gas producing Niger Delta have not benefitted from the huge amounts of resources pumped from beneath their lands, rivers and creeks,” Williams said.
The executive director dismissed the claims by the IOCs that militant activities had adverse consequences on their operations, therefore the reason for their plan divestment.