Leadership (Abuja)
1 January 2009
Mr Nimmno Bassey, Chairman, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth International, has called on the Federal Government to be committed to the December 31, 2008 deadline to end gas flare.
Bassey, who made the call in Benin yesterday during a news briefing, said "the country loses about 2.5 billion dollars annually to gas flare."
He expressed regret that since 1969, the Federal Government had failed to enforce the various administrative directives and laws it enacted to end gas flare in the Niger Delta area.
"Rather than enforce those laws and a subsisting court judgment against the practice, the government in countless instances succumbed to excuses from oil companies for a shift in flare-out deadlines.
"Gas flare causes acid rain which acidifies the lakes and streams and damages crops and vegetations. It reduces farm yields and harms human health, lives and livelihoods," he said.
The environmentalist expressed concern that despite court orders, gas flare had continued unabated in the Niger Delta, putting the local communities and entire country at risk.
He said the problem of gas flare was one of the major factors responsible for the tension and conflicts raging in the Niger Delta.
"The government must put the human and environmental rights of the people above corporate profits.
"We demand that government adheres to the Dec. 31 deadline for ending gas flare in Nigeria," Bassey said. (NAN)
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