PRESS STATEMENT: Group Restates Demand For Payment Of N50 Billion, Call For Sack Of NOSDRA DG, Overhaul Of NEPL Mgt.

Our attention has been drawn to publication in the Nation Newspapers and other social media platforms defending the Nigeria Exploration and Production Limited ( NEPL) and ELCREST refuting our demand for the ” Cleaning-up, Remediation and payment of 50 billion naira for the October 28, 2023 Oil spills, and two others after and the dumping of hazardous waste in the ongoing drilling campaign in Opuama flow station, OML 40.

We are compelled to respond to these publications, not just for the benefits of the affected communities, but for the government, Nigerians and the International communities who are keenly watching the Ecocide, the mass destruction of the environment.

We have no problem with the community leaders but they have chosen this inglorious path! The voice of Jacob, the hand of Esuah. This is most unfortunate. They have become the mouth piece of the companies. Defenders?! A rat defends the snake that bites him, while the forest burns. What an irony!

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The facts are clear:

1. On 28 of October, 2023, there was a massive spill from the Opuama flow station in the land and rivers impacting greatly on fishing and farming activities.
2. It took about a Two weeks before a team of NOSDRA, the companies officials and community leaders joint investigation visit ( JIV) could arrive to assess the situation. It turns out that the leakage was caused by equipment failure. It was expected that NOSDRA would have prevailed on the company to clean up and remediate the environment;

3. A year later, the communities in a joint press conference press signed by: elder Yoroki Zebulon, elder Samuel Utor, comrade Gabriel Lesigho called for an urgent clean-up and remediation of the impacted communities. See, Oasis Magazine of 4th December, 2024. The Vanguard Newspaper of 5 December, 2024 , The Nation Newspaper of 5 December, 2024 and ThisDay of December, 2024.
4. They referred to a protest letter dated 27th April, 2024 which the companies ignored before the press conference of December, 2024. Are these also unknown leaders?

5. Two other spills have occurred since the October 28, 2023 spill. Just as they ignored the first one they also ignored the ones that followed!
6. Unregulated dumping of hazardous waste in the flow station and surrounding land by the companies in the ongoing drilling campaign; is an environmental genocide against our people. We will return to it later and the spills to highlight the consequences.

Now the questions for our kinsmen who are now defenders of polluters:

1. Whether there was a spill on the 28 of October, 2023 caused by equipment failure?
2. Whether there were two additional spills after the 28 October, 2023 spill?
3. Whether the companies have clean-up and remediate the impact areas?
4. Whether they are aware of the records number of deaths in our communities early this year and late last year?
5. Since they agreed that, there are legacy spills, whose responsibility is it to clean and remediate?

What the law says about assets and liabilities in the Petroleum Industry Acts, 2022. We refer them to Section 54 of the Act which deals with transfer of Assets and liabilities to the new owner. And so, since they claimed; there are legacy spills from the time of Shell, who should now clean and remediate the land now that NEPL and ELCREST are the new owners? For the avoidance of doubt, it’s the responsibility of the new owners, NEPL and ELCREST.

Again, we refer them to the guidelines of their operations in line with the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria ( EGASPIN). First issued in 1992, revised edition in 2002, which provides:

*”An operator shall be responsible for the containment and recovery of any spill discovered within its operational area, whether or not its source is known. The operator shall take prompt and adequate steps to contain, remove, and dispose of the spill.”*

Despite this, the companies have refused to clean up and remediate the affected communities; a failure of corporate and regulatory responsibilities.

We are not asking any person or groups of people to pay or clean up the environment but the ” *POLUTTER PAYS* ” a legal and economic principle that holds that those who cause pollution should bear the costs of managing it to prevent harm to human health and the environment, the *Rio Declaration of 1992* .

We have scientific backup to our claim of the records deaths in our communities since these incessant spills and the prevalent rate of cancer cases in our communities. See United Nations Environmental Program report on the Environmental Assessment of Ogoni land ( 2011) at page 147. The prevalent rate of cancer cases.

As victims of oil pollution, our back is already on the ground as our rights have all been denied. We want to warn that any attempt to close out these sites in collaboration with the fraudulent NOSDRA without the clean-up of the legacy spills and the current ones would be resisted through the instrumentality of the court both national and international.

Our Irreducible minimum demands:

1. Clean-up and remediated the impacted communities;
2. Pay the two principal communities with #50,000,000,000.00
3. Stop the unregulated dumping of hazardous chemicals waste at the flow station and surroundings.

The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ our common humanity is a service to God. And as indigenes of the communities, no one is more important than others. We are all equal stakeholders. Those whose palm kanel are crack for them by benevolent spirits must learn to be humble.

We urge the companies to stop all operations forthwith, until our demands are met and the issues addressed in accordance with international best practices.

We shall seek legal redress, if our demands are not attended to within the next sixty days.

Signed:

Mr. Nehemiah Tobolayefa,

Mrs. Tari Gideon, for on behalf of Save the Earth and Secure the Future ( SESF), an NGO based in Warri, Delta State.