…As HOMEF organizes One-day Community Diagnostic Dialogue
…Air pollutants from Utorogu gas Plant exert significant inhibitory influences on Cassava — Study
After over 20 years of painstaking endurance by the people of Iwhrekan Community which plays host to the federal government-owned Utorogu Gas Plant in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State over environmental degradation caused by gas pollution, members of the community have now resolved to embark on a protest which they claimed shall be of global proportion.
The Community which disclosed this during a one-day ‘Community Diagnostic Dialogue’ organized by an NGO, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, in the area, noted that they have already overstretched their endurance, lamenting that pollution from the Utorogun gas plant and several gas flaring points by different oil companies in the area has over the years been affecting their health, crops, water and aquatic lives.
Speaking at the occasion on behalf of the community, Elder Victor Onokere, accused ND Western — operator of the Gas Plant — of perpetrating gas pollution without any regards to the lives of the people and the environment, even as he called on the federal government to prevail on the company to urgently address the environmental pollution occasioned by its numerous gas flaring points in the area.
“We are calling on the ND Western, they are the people in charge, all these companies we have mentioned today, they are working with them. There are contractors working under ND Western. We will stage a protest for the whole world to hear us, to know what we are suffering here.
“Many multi-national companies are coming here, for example Malcolm’s Engineering Services; they just finished the second phase of the gas plant. Now we have Lowlem that are working here now, working on the third phase of the gas plant.
“Pollution is one of the things we experience in this community. Hazard, serious hazard! We drink the gas, we inhale it. If you wash your shirt like I was telling one of your men, just wash your white shirt and put it on the sun in the next 30 minutes you will see that it’s already black; and, that black, that carbon, is what we inhale into our system and we don’t even have hospital, no health centre in our community. As a community having two to three gas plants here we have no hospital,” he said.
According to Elder Onokere, “We are the host community to ND formally SPDC. We have the first phase gas plant, which is Utorogun Gas Plant 1, and then we also have the Utorogun Gas Plant 2. Now the third phase is under construction by a company called Lowlem; but in all this, we have nothing to show.
“In all this, we have nothing to show. The government doesn’t recognize us, the company ND Western does not recognize us. Today, we have no functional school as the only one, which is the technical school, is like a ghost yard. When you go there today, you hardly will see any pupil there, because there is no equipment there, no teacher to teach them; these are things we are experiencing.
“We are sharing primary school with another community, the only secondary school we have, go there it’s like a graveyard. No chairs for the children to sit, there is no teacher to teach them and they say they have given us a technical school, there is no single equipment to show for it. So, we want you to help us talk to the government, talk to those that are concerned to come to our aid because we are suffering.”
Speaking at the occasion, the Executive Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey, lamented the age-long neglect of the Community by the operator of the Utorogu Gas Plant, disclosing that the purpose of the one-day event was to know first-hand, the negative impact of the gas flare on the people.
“And, so we are here today to listen to the community people about exactly what their situation is, how they are surviving the case of environmental degradation and in what way their issue have been listened to, and what they believe needs to be done and how.
“In this process, we are going to different communities, we are not going to all the gas flaring communities because they are over a hundred communities where this is going on. So, we are dealing with gas flaring, oil spill and also impact of climate change in communities. And, when we come to a place like Iwhrekan, the outcome from here has significance for other communities”, he said.
Bassey also expressed sadness that seventeen years after the Iwhrekan community got a judgment from a High Court in Benin City, declaring gas flaring as illegal and unconstitutional, the company is yet to stop flaring in all its operations in the area.
According to him, even while that court judgment is still subsisting and un-appealed, the company had expanded its gas flaring activities without regards to the well-being of the people and the environment.
“In 2005, the people of Iwhrekan took Shell to court. It was the first time that we have a case that was successful on the issue of gas flaring. By the end of 2005, I believe it was November 2005, there was a judgement by the high court in Benin-City that gas flaring is illegal, is unconstitutional and against the human rights of Nigeria people. From that time, we have been watching to see whether the gas flaring in Iwhrekan community will stop, but as we speak at this moment it’s still going on.
“It is even expanding rather than stop. And, that judgement that was given in 2005 was not appealed to or appeal against until recently. In fact, it was in January 2022 that the appeal case was first held. So, you can imagine what has been having. Judgement against identity, against the government and against the oil company for so many years and nothing was done about it.
“And, so we are here today to listen to the community people about exactly what their situation is, how they are surviving the case of environmental degradation and in what way their issue have been listened to, and what they believe needs to be done and how”, Bassey noted.
The New Diplomat stumbled on the report of a research carried out by a group of environmentalists from the Department of Environmental Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri and Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Ebonyi State, in 2017. The report of the research which was based on the impact of pollution from gas flare from the Utorogu gas plant, concluded that it exerted significant inhibitory influences on biochemical variables of cassava (Manihot Esculentum).
