“What happened in Ogoni will not happen again”, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva has declared.
Sylva, a Niger Deltan from Bayelsa State Wednesday night, relived the harrowing experience suffered by the Ogoni, vowing Nigeria would never allow such a thing to happen ever again.
Speaking in defence of the Petroleum Industry Act passed by the National Assembly which was endorsed recently by the President, Sylva disclosed a new safety valve has been inserted for the benefit of oil producing communities.
The Ogonis who inhabit parts of the Rivers southeast have emerged as a classical example of an area where acts of brazen recklessness, neglect of environmental safety issues and nonchalant attitude by oil majors operating in Nigeria have resulted in serious pollution defects.
Studies conducted in the area by agencies, including the United Nations indicate for instance, that underground water supply as well as arable farm lands in Ogoniland have been polluted.
But the Minister whose counterpart in the Ministry of Environment is trying to find solutions to the Ogoni situation through HYPREP said a clause which would end years of abandonment suffered by oil bearing communities has been introduced.
Chief Sylva, a graduate of the University of Port Harcourt, said under the new law, “what happened in Ogoni” cannot “happen again.”
The law which takes cognizance of loopholes, which encouraged the neglect and abandonment of the people in the past, offers protection to the oil bearing communities.
According to the Minister, such a provision which shields the communities from the uncharitable actions oil companies did not exist before the passage of the BIA.
He urged the local people in the Niger Delta to exploit opportunities captured in the new Act, which have huge potentials for progressively promoting direct investment in the communities.
Hear what Sylva said about Ogoni and other issues:
