Bayelsa under threat of environmental terrorism –Gov Dickson

Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has cried out that the state is under threat of environmental terrorism by oil companies.
This is even as the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has hinted that the state may be considered a special case due to spills. Dickson, who stated this when receiving members of the agency at the Government House in Yenagoa alleged that oil companies operate with “reckless abandon” in the state.

He described Bayelsa State as the most fragile and highly compromised area, where environmental pollution has devastated the ecosystem for several decades since the discovery of crude oil in 1956.
The governor announced that an environmental summit would be organised soon to discuss ways of mitigating the effects of oil and gas exploration and exploitation in the region.
Dickson advocated stringent environmental laws for the protection and preservation of the environment against crude oil pollution and other activities occasioned by oil exploration and exploitation in the Niger Delta.
His words: “I have said it before about what has been going on in Bayelsa State, the Niger Delta and in all oil producing areas concerning the levity with which oil companies treat the issues of the environment and the maintenance of environmental and health standards.
“When you look at all of these and particularly listening to your (NOSDRA) chilly statistics, which I believe is only a tip of the iceberg, one is really left with no other conclusion than that we are actually facing a case of environmental terrorism.
“What has been going on in the Niger Delta since the discovery of oil; a situation where more than one spill takes place in Bayelsa every day, going by what your statistics is telling us and all these sites are treated with reckless abandon and the environment is left to fend for itself, the livelihood and in fact, the lives of the people and the ecosystem are not attended to. What then is more of terrorist action than this?”
“This is an opportunity again for us to remind ourselves that we all have a duty to work together as government to government and it is also an opportunity for us to call on all stakeholders especially the oil companies, regulatory agencies and everybody to be alive to the need to protect our environment.”
The Director-General of NOSDRA, Peter Idabor, in an interview at Imiringi, Ogbia Local Government Area of the state  compared  oil pollution in Bayelsa State to the situation in Ogoniland, Rivers State.
Idabor said that the agency was in Bayelsa for a two-day inspection visit to record oil spill sites that were not re-mediated by government or the oil companies.