Dickson blasts oil companies over environmental damage in Niger Delta

Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has lashed at international oil companies over what he referred to as their “insensitivity to the plight of oil producing communities in the Niger Delta.”

According to the governor, the accumulated effects of the activities of the oil companies were beginning to take their toll on the people of oil producing states, impacting adversely on their lives.

His words: “I have said it before that what has been going on in Bayelsa State and in all oil producing areas concerning the levity with which oil companies treat the issues of the environment and the maintenance of environmental and health standards is unimaginable.

“We all have a duty to keep the environment safe and hand it to our children’s children, the same way our parents handed it over to us. Already, in our villages and communities, we can see what is happening; the accumulated effects of several years of oil exploration and exploitation; a regime of lack of transparency and accountability by oil companies, who are operating in this area because they have no respect for our laws and even our lives.”

The governor, who stated this in an interview with newsmen in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State, urged Non Governmental Organizations and other well meaning groups to join government in championing the cause of protecting the environment for the sake of posterity.

His said: “The environment is one of the greatest challenges our people are facing. This government is aware of the precarious situation of our environment and we are aware of our overall responsibility to protect the environment, which is the most important heritage.”