**Says scientific report should be a lesson for new oil bearing communities
**Asks FG, States, LGs to put an end to reckless deforestation
Senator representing Bayelsa West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Seriake Dickson, has expressed deep concern over heavy metal poisoning many residents of the oil-rich Bayelsa state have been exposed to.
Dickson who is also a former governor of the State, blamed the development on the activities oil exploration by the various multinational oil companies in the Niger Delta region.
Dickson, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, stated this in Abuja on Wednesday when the Global Initiative for Climate and Environmental Sustainance (GICES) conferred on him, an excellence in environmental leadership award 2023.
The representative of GICES, Mr. Ogueri Mbah, explained that the Senator, during his tenure as governor, empaneled an International Commission on Oil Spills to assess environmental damages, determine responsibility, and developed a new legal framework for accountability and compensation in the area.
Dickson in his speech explained that the panel he constituted as governor, took samples of blood of residents of the oil producing areas and after laboratory tests it was discovered that there were heavy metal poisoning in their bodies.
“As Governor I got tired of the environmental degradation that I was seeing in Bayelsa on daily basis. I have seen first hand the effect on the communities, on the livelihood of the people and indeed on the lives of the people and I empanelled this high profile report.
He said he caused an international Commission of Enquiry to be constituted made up of Political leaders and experts, scientists of no mean repute drawn from around the world.
According to him, the panel took samples of soil and blood samples. It was discovered that there was heavy metal poisoning in the body system of the natives as a result of air and water pollution.
Fishes they caught from polluted water and consumed also infected the natives he explained further.
Elaborating more on the pathetic situation he said the plights of the residents of the oil bearing communities in Bayelsa State and the Niger Delta in general were brought to the fore by the scientific report produced at the end of the exercise
The former Bayelsa governor said upon drawing the attention of the multinational oil firms to the development, rather than proffering solution, they started fighting him.
According to him multinational oil companies were not cooperating, they were fighting him and he did not mind them as he said he enjoyed the fights that are for Justice.
“I used my powers under the commission of enquiry of the laws of Bayelsa State to empanel them and to commission them and to do an indebt, thorough and comprehensive investigation and report.
“They went to communities, took samples from spilling sites, took samples, even blood samples from people in Bayelsa. You will be shocked at the findings.
“The amount of heavy metals that the people in Bayelsa and the Niger Delta oil bearing communities are carrying. You will be shocked the heavy metals in their systems, from the air that is polluted to the water that is polluted that they drink, from the fish that is contaminated that they consumed and so on and so fort over the years. “
He said he wanted a report on scientific bases.
“When we say it is pollution and the activities are destroying the environment, our way of life and infact detrimental to the health and wellbeing of the people, we wanted to establish a scientific base and that was what we provided.”
“They did all of that for years and presented this report. I know that government continued from where I stopped but today I want to remind Nigerians about this report. Try to get a copy of this report. Everything about the scientific details and the effect of pollution over the decades in Bayelsa and across the Niger Delta.
He said the report should also serve as a lesson for those States that are jubilatiing that they are oil producing States.
“We welcome them to the fold, let them come and see what we have been seeing for the past six to seventy years and feel what we feel but in all, this is a call to further action.
He lamented that the situation was still reoccurring even as he urged the attention of his successor to the unfortunate situation and asked him to take action.
He also explained how he recruited 250 graduates to protect the environment, especially the forest resources.
“The step I took by employing 250 graduates for the sole purpose of protecting the environment, our forest resources, and we take these things for granted.
‘Most of the wood that produces all the planks and other things that people buy and even ship outside Nigeria come from places like the forest of Bayelsa, prestine forests of Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Akwaibom, Crossrivers and Edo, Ondo and other States.
“We have to stop reckless deforestation while we encourage afforestation to combat desertification as a result of global warming and climatic changes that are causing floods and erosion across the continent.
“We should keep our eyes on preserving the trees that our ancestors did not cut but preserved for us. Even as we are speaking in the forest of Bayelsa, my community and all the communities in all other States where that is taking place, I want to use this opportunity to call on the governments, the Local governments and community leaders and Federal agencies to pay attention to the reckless deforestation that is ongoing.
“People fell trees anyhow, and within few years from now, you may not see any tree that is 10, 15, or 20 years old. They have finished felling all the big old trees that added to the beauty and nature’s way of controlling the climate of the world.
“I hope that this also should be one area people should leverage on.
Earlier, the representative of the group said, “His Excellency Senator Henry Seriake Dickson believes that the Environment is the collective heritage.”
Mbah said, “So as governor to the good people of Bayelsa state, in his multi-pronged approach towards protecting and preserving the Bayelsa environment, his excellency employed over 200 forest protection officers, that were recruited into the ministry of environment.
“The aim is to monitor deforestation and stop the reckless fallen of trees in the state.
“His excellency further took his mission and vision to a higher level, towards tackling the issues of environmental terrorism and degradation caused by oil companies in the Niger Delta region.
“These team of world leaders brought together by Senator Henry Seriake Dickson includes; The former President of Ghana, Emmanuel Kuffour, the Archbishop of York Dr. John Setanmu, as well as notable academicians to address the harrowing issues of environmental despoliation as well as related challenges in the oil industry.”