SERAP to FG: Stand up to powerful oil companies to end N’Delta crisis

SOCIO-Economic Rights and Accountabil­ity Project (SERAP) has urged the Federal Gov­ernment to stand up to powerful oil companies that have continued to abuse rights of people of the Niger Delta, if it is to satisfactorily resolve the crisis in the region.
SERAP, in a state­ment yesterday, by its Executive Director, Ad­etokunbo Mumuni, said “an important part of the solution to the hu­man rights crisis is for President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the ECOWAS Court judg­ment, which ordered the Nigerian government to punish oil companies over oil pollution and devastation in the re­gion.”
“This government should make sure that activities of oil compa­nies in Nigeria bring de­velopment to the people, rather than a string of needless rights trag­edies.
“The government of former President Goodluck Jonathan ig­nored the judgment and showed no political will to hold to account oil companies that have, for many years, contin­ued to destroy the live­lihoods of tens of thou­sands of people with almost absolute impu­nity.
“President Buhari shouldn’t repeat former President Jonathan’s mistake.
“He should make sure that his government ad­heres to this judgment without further delay.”
Speaking further, SERAP said oil compa­nies operating in the Niger Delta have, for so long, failed to clean up the region and added that, “as a result, com­munities badly affected by oil pollution are sink­ing further into poverty, unable to eat the con­taminated fish or drink the water, stained black from the pollution.
“It’s also clear that oil companies wield tremendous influence over the regulatory re­gime that governs their operations. That has to change for the good and peace of the region.
“The change that Bu­hari champions should include justice for the victims of oil pollution in the Niger Delta and that’s why the ECOWAS judgment is so signifi­cant because it provides the framework for ac­tion.
“Government should impose fines on oil com­panies for breach of reg­ulations over the past 10 years and take measures to punish the compa­nies.
“Government should also investigate the role oil companies and oth­ers have played, and continue to play, in the environmental pollution in the region, and widely publish the outcome of any such investigation.”