Representatives and leaders of the Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria (AFAN), who are victims of the Shell Bonga oil spill of 2011, yesterday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on multinational oil giants in the region to put an end to the environmental degradation and pollution in the Niger Delta.
The representatives of AFAN from the five Niger Delta States, namely, Ondo, Eso, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom, while speaking at a press conference in Benin City, Edo State, also lamented that the continuous effect of the activities of the oil companies have not only destroyed their main source of livelihood, but also posed serious health hazards to the people.
Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria and winner of the 2022 Goldman Environment Prize for Africa, Chima Williams, in a letter to Buhari on behalf of the group, acknowledged what he described as the positive steps of the president in environmental protection and preservation over the years.
Chima recalled that in 2016, Buhari, while addressing the opening meeting on ‘Taking Climate Action for Sustainable Development,’ in New York, co-hosted by Nigeria and the United Nation’s Environment Programme (UNEP), had signed the Paris Agreement, where he had committed Nigeria to reducing “greenhouse gas emissions unconditionally by 20 per cent.”
The Executive Director of ERA/FoRN appealed to the president to ensure that petroleum extractive companies are compelled to live up to their responsibility of restoring the Nigerian environment and paying compensation to victims of their operations.