Niger Delta group plans protest

Posted by admin Niger Delta Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

n environmental rights group, Agape Birthrights will today stage a protest in Abuja over environmental degradation and pollution of oil, bearing communities in the Niger Delta by multinational oil companies.

At a news conference, the group’s President, Ms. Annkio Briggs said the cries of the Niger Delta people against the “careless and heartless ways the oil companies and the Federal Government have handled issues of destruction of the Niger Delta environment was well known.”

According to her, the group would continue to condemn and agitate against the violations of human/environmental rights of the oil-producing communities and demand for social justice.

“If there is anything new about what we are expressing, it might just be that this is the very first time the peoples of Niger Delta are marching on the streets of their nation’s capital to draw attention to the death sentence they face as a result of the environmental racism and terrorism perpetrated by oil companies, tacitly supported by the Federal Government of Nigeria”

She criticised the major oil companies operating in the Niger Delta for operating in the Niger Delta communities in ways and manners they cannot treat communities in their home countries without facing sanctions.

Briggs cited instances of oil spill and gas flaring in various communities as a result of the activities of the oil companies leading to loss livelihood and health risks regretting that in most cases, the companies leave the poor people to their fate.

Lamenting the plight of the communities, Briggs stated: “Today, the fresh water in the creek, swamp and forests has been displaced by the salt water from the Atlantic Ocean; the rain forest has become a desert”

“A people who once drank from the creek directly now have to travel far to fetch drinking water even as their livelihood is gone. When the people complain, they suffer arrests and detention”

“The oil companies often fail to clean up spill sites and don’t respond promptly spills; allowing same to spew sometimes up to a month or two. The type of support and justice that victims of the Gulf of Mexico spill had is grossly lacking here. This is a major concern to us”

Ms. Briggs said the protest, which is billed to take off at the Eagle Square is expected to attract no fewer than 600 participants and that the protesters intend to march to the National Assembly where they will submit a protest letter to the President of the Senate, Chief David Mark.

-Nationwp_posts