By Obiabin Onukwugha
The people of Gelegele Community in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State, have called for an end to oil and gas exploration in their community, and payment of loss and damage to the environment, arising from several decades of extractive activities.
According to the community representatives, the years of long oil and gas extraction from their community has only brought poverty, suffering, ailments and disunity to the people, rather than the promised development and growth.
They are therefore calling for an outright end to oil and gas extraction in the community, relocation of the gas flaring plant to other areas, adequate compensation and clean up of their environment.
Specifically, the people are demanding for an end to oil and gas exploration and exploitation, clean up and reforestation of the environment, and a compensation of five hundred billion naira (N500,000,000,000) payment to the people, for the damages they have have suffered from the international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the area.
Representatives of the community, made the demand at a meeting organized by Zero Waste Ambassadors, in collaboration with Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), and the African Climate Justice, as part of the #PeopleAssemblyAction towards the #AfricanPeoplesCounterCop, which held in Benin, the Edo state capital, recently.
Sharing their stories and experiences in the hands of the extractives companies, the President of the Host Communities Network (HoCON), and member of Gelegele Community, Prince Barbs Pawuru insisted that years of Oil and Gas leakages, environmental destruction and neglect caused by the operating companies must be accounted for.
He said that besides extraction activities, the oil companies also built a gas flaring plant in the middle of the community, exposing the people to toxic acids and gas emissions that have polluted the lands, waters and the air they breathe.
He lamented that the people of the community suffer diseases at different levels, ranging from heart conditions, skin diseases, loss of sight, amongst others.
Pawuru regretted that several efforts to seek redress and hold polluting companies accountable have failed in the community as these companies employ a divide-and-rule system by awarding contracts to a selected few in the community, thereby pitching them against each other to the detriment of the general wellbeing and development of the people.
Pawuru also noted that the companies in Gelegele community have exploited their lands and the people without any benefit to them, “therefore we are demanding for an end to oil and gas exploration in our community. To clean up the environment, and a compensation of five hundred billion naira (N500,000,000,000) should be paid to the people as compensation for the damages they have caused in the last five to six decades.”
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Also speaking at the program, the Women Leader, Mary Fedigha pointed out that the women of Gelegele community have spoken, cried and begged on different platforms and with various Civil Society Organizations, calling for an end to oil and gas exploration in their community to no avail.
She their source of livelihood, which is mainly fishing and farming have been destroyed by activities of the oil companies thereby exposing them to poverty, hunger and starvation.
She explained that despite housing oil and gas industries, their children do not have access to good education, neither have the few graduates in the community been offered employment opportunities by the companies, even with the pleas of the community.
On her part, the Secretary of Gelegele Women Group, Grace Emakpose pointed out that women in the community suffer severe health issues, especially miscarriages, which has been traced to the acidic contents of gas.
She also added that most people have fled the community because of the heat and lack of development.
Emakpose regretted that the oil and gas activities have done so much harm to the people, with nothing positive to to show.
“There is no reason to continue with oil and gas extraction. The companies should be asked to leave the community,” she added.
Furthermore, the Gelegele Youth Leader, Ebikena Milton, pointed out that the oil company operating in Gelegele has refused to engage the services of the youths of the community that has hosted their business operations, despite making billions from them.
He opined that instead of providing such amenities as soft loans or scholarships for youths to advance their businesses or education, the companies have rather teamed up with a few people who they use to cause disunity and chaos in the land, to advance their business agenda.
The Communication Officer of ERA/FoEN, and member of Zero Waste Ambassadors, Elvira Jordan who spoke on the People’s Assembly Action, stated that the action is in line with the objectives of the African Peoples Counter COP, towards the coming 28th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP 28) scheduled to hold in Dubai, United Arabs Emirates in November.
She posited that previous COPs have only seen world leaders who attend the event without addressing the predicaments of the host communities, as regards to the level of environmental hazards and human rights abuses brought by oil and gas exploration activities.
She added that the action was geared towards hearing and documenting the experiences of the people and their demands to the oil and gas industries towards presenting them at the COP28.
