FG urged to stop Shell from flaring gas in Bayelsa community

The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria [ERA/ FoEN] has called on the federal government to compel Shell to stop gas flaring in Gbarantoru community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

ERA/FoEN call comes in the wake of a visit to the community by a team from the Yenagoa office led by Programme Manager and Head of the Niger Delta Resource Center in Bayelsa, Comrade Alagoa Morris, on the 1st March, 2024.

A statement from the group said the visit came after a distress call by members of the community who feared for their lives and their environment, due to the flares.

“Gbarantoru in Ekpetiama kingdom of Yenagoa LGA is a relatively large community and densely populated. During the visit ERA/FoEN monitors observed the gas flare from Shell facility furiously blasting away. Not only was the horizontally flared gas so huge and menacingly noisy, the threat to buildings in the community was obvious as they continued to vibrate rhythmically. A school within the vicinity was forced to shut as a direct result of the impact of the flares, “the statement reads.

They also observed that a very high pressure liquid suspected to be water was being sprayed into the air in the direction of the huge flare.

The sprayed water might be technically viewed as reducing heat produced by the flame or have some chemical reaction with the noxious gases so released. This is left for experts to properly explain.

According to the statement, an Indigene of Gbarantoru and former Councillor in Yenagoa LGA, Seiyefa Saiyou Jones, expressed his regret at the attitude of disdain and lack of concern for the people displayed by Shell.

He said the community has become unbearable to live in as the peace, health and safety of the people are under threat due to the vicious gas flaring by Shell.

"In the night, there is no way to sleep. Due to the noise from the raging gas flare the children cannot sleep in the room anymore. The entire building is vibrating. I am directly affected. Besides the light [from the flare], the vibration of the house is so alarming. This is about the fourth day since they put on the gas flare,” he said.

The Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama kingdom, HRM King Bubaraye Dakolo, Agada IV likened the ongoing gas flaring in the community to pumping in toxic and harmful gas into the body system of the people.

According to him, the people of the community may die from the harmful substances that have been released into the air.

Executive Director of ERA/ FoEN, Chima Williams said that Shell’s action prompting victims to cry out is nothing but EcoTerrorism, as the vegetation, lives and property of victims are under attack by this horizontal emission of noxious gases.

Williams added that the flares negate the principle behind Article 24 of African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right.