The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Government to sanction Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Agip Oil Company over alleged pollution of the environment in the Niger Delta region.
At the plenary on Tuesday, the House asked the government, through the Department of Petroleum Resources and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, to “sanction Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited and Nigeria Agip Oil Company for gross violation of environmental laws.”
The House also asked the DPR, SPDC and NAOC Shell Petroleum Development to comply strictly with NOSDRA Act.
Furthermore, the House mandated its Committee on Host Communities to liaise with NOSDRA, DPR, SPDC and NAOC and “carry out effective inspection and comprehensive assessment at Muuabooh, Kinaben, Vuruvulu and Ke–eegio creeks in B–Dere and other impacted areas in Gokana Local Government Area of Ogoniland, including other host communities in the Niger Delta region, with a view to ensuring strict compliance with the NOSDRA Act as well as the Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industry In Nigeria.”
The resolutions were passed based on a motion titled ‘Pollution in the Environment and Farmlands in the Niger Delta Region that Destroys Sources of Livelihood.’
Sponsors of the motion were Messrs Henry Ndochukwu Nwawuba, Dumnameme Dekor, Victor Nwokolo, Victor Mela, Ibrahim Obanikoro, Muhammad Wudil, Tijani Ismail, John Dyegh, Francis Uduyok, Olumide Osoba, Tijani Yusuf, Yusuf Miga, Makwe Livinus, Hamza Ibrahim and Patrick Ifon.
Nwawuba, who moved the motion on behalf of others, noted that there were two separate oil spills from Okordia Rumuekpe pipeline and the flow station at John Krana 4 known as Adibawa flow station in Eharama Community of Bayelsa State, owing to long usage of oil pipeline since 1969, operated by Shell, and the Ogada-Brass pipeline operated by AGIP, both of which occurred in 2020.
Nwawuba further said, “The House is concerned that both Shell Petroleum Company and Nigerian Agip Oil Company have failed to clean up affected areas and compensate the affected families, or repair damage caused by fire outbreaks arising from the spills dispersed by flood which destroyed other sources of livelihood in the region.”
