By Modupe Gbadeyanka
President Bola Tinubu has been charged to put an end to gas flaring in Ubeji, a community in the Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.
This call was made by a group of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and media professionals comprising the Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Web of Support Youth Development Program Nigeria, and Advisors Reports.Com.
In a statement on Tuesday in Lagos, the consortium also appealed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to do everything within its power to save the inhabitants of the sleepy satellite community located around the Warri Petrochemical Company.
The Governor of Delta State, Mr Sheriff Oborevwori, was also urged to take urgent steps to the people from the choking soot which emanates from the oil facility belonging to a popular gas company in Nigeria.
The association expressed dismay that the federal government and all its relevant agencies have abandoned the Ubeji community to be suffering this protracted pollution.
“The community has been suffering from the gas flaring pollution for decades, and the entire environment and ecosystem destroyed because the flaring is an everyday action as it never goes off at all.
“A visit to the community reveals a people faced with increased socio-economic difficulties with no record of survival.
“Though the community has not vanished physically, many of the residents have been sacked by the pollution and businesses within the space destroyed. Some families were decimated and dispersed.
“Those that choose to stay back in the community have been ‘absorbed’ by the pollution. They no longer enjoy economic, social and healthy progress that flows from good governance and social cohesion. Their lives are now fraught with uncertainty.
“Without any shadow of doubt, the ongoing flaring in the community has led to large-scale pollution in ways that have forced many to flee the community,” a part of the statement said.
The group lamented that the pollution from the energy firm has negatively impacted the rights of the people to health, noting that it has disrupted and infringed on the rights to education of the children who have fled the community.
It tasked the federal and state governments, as well as the NNPC to without delay, take urgent and coordinated action aimed at resolving the ongoing pollution arising from gas flaring in the community and in other parts of the Niger Delta region.
“We also call for adequate compensation of these victims of pollution for their losses.
“This must be done not for political reason(s) but for the survival of our people and democracy,” the disclosure declared.
Adedapo Adesanya