By Francis Sadhere
Leaders from oil producing communities in the Niger Delta region have been advised not to succumb to bait by International Oil Companies awarding ‘blanket’ clean up contracts to them for spills in their domains.
National Coordinator, Center for Peace and Environmental Justice , CEPEJ, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, gave the advice today in Warri, against the backdrop of accusations that some community leaders have been accepting phony contracts from oil companies to cleanup spills without due process.
Comrade Mulade, who frowned at the dubious policy, blamed community leaders for putting pecuniary gains before the wellbeing of their environment, not minding the devastating effects of spills on the environment.
He advised them to always ensure that the process for the award of such contracts are followed through and that they should work in collaboration with National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to guarantee cleanup is carried out in proper manner.
Besides, Comrade Mulade, an environmentalist, urged NOSDRA to live up to her expectations by ensuring that any oil firm that spills crude oil on the environment is held to account not matter whose ox is gored.
He described as unacceptable a situation where oil firms destroy the environment because of exploration and exploitation activities without appropriate tidying up and remediation of the degraded environment.
Comrade Mulade alleged that the cleanup contracts are not always executed to the letter as the oil firms only use the system to appease the leaders so that they could sign relevant papers for them and thus get away with such unwholesome practices.
He also knocked some recalcitrant officials of NOSDRA, who he accused of aiding and abetting the unethical exercise, alleging that they also use proxies to corner such juicy cleanup contracts to themselves, and implored them to desist from it.
He called on the regulating agency to direct oil firms to pay compensations to communities that have been affected by spills to lessen the plight of the people, and listed their predicaments to include, health challenges and means of livelihood.
He charged oil firms to follow laid down operational procedures as applicable in other clime and not take advantage of the people of the Niger Delta region in their dealings with them.
