Multinational oil companies operating in the Niger Delta area has become a torn in the flesh of the host communities and their inhabitants and is on the increase as time progresses. The people suffer oppression and deprivation from these companies including deliberate denial of opportunities such as employment, contracts and consultancies on the most demeaning excuse of the people not having the needed qualifications and requirements for such which is not true.
The peoples economic means of livelihood which is majorly fishing and farming have been almost completely destroyed by the uncontrolled incessant crude oil spills majorly due to old expired and obsolete equipment but by the connivance of some regulatory agencies like NOSDRA, they are tagged third party interference or popularly called sabotage, but they have not been able to identify one saboteur despite their acclaimed sophisticated security and surveillance system. It is not interesting to note that most the operational pipes have expired operating on expired leases.
In the guise of expert reports, their joint investigation visit (JIV) reports are always fictitious and falsified, so also the post spill impact assessment (PSIA) and damage assessment (DA) reports. This is the reason their reports are at great disparity with the reports of other cognate professionals. It poignant and nauseating to note that such post spill impact assessments (PSIA) and damage assessments (DA) reports are hardly released to the participants by the coordinator and regulatory agency NOSDRA sometimes for upward of three years after the assessment despite pressures mounted by interested and affected parties, particularly on the ones that they cannot declare sabotage because of the too glaring evidence. Surprisingly, clean-ups are made in the most unprofessional and unethical manners and remediations are not on site but on paper only.
Most worrisome is the fact that when some aggrieved communities seek redress in competent court of law, these multinational oil companies will to the extent of denying some critical meetings with the impacted communities and their agents.
This is done through their lawyers in their counter affidavits amongst other painful lies. Investigations reveals that the brief to their councils is that they should as much as possible delay the dispensation of justice since the evidences tendered by the plaintiffs are too germane to defend which the councils openly display in court by employing a lot of frivolous antics. This is the reason litigations concerning crude oil spills between the affected and the polluters take years, sometimes more than a decade. This is to discourage the affected who are poor peasant farmers and fishermen from continuing with the matter due to paucity of fund on their part. This is the height of oppression in these modern times.
It is in the light of the above and some salient issues not mentioned here that I chose to enlighten my people who have suffered so much bruises over the years from these strange bed fellows.
When a spill occurs, quickly report the matter formally not only to the operators /polluters but to the Federal regulatory agencies, State and Local Government, CSOs and NGO. Make sure you get duly signed and stamped acknowledgement copies.
Engage the services of experts like Surveyors, Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Environment Scientists, Engineers (particularly corrosion experts) and legal professionals to be involved in all stages, including the joint investigation visits (JIV), post spill impact assessments (PSIA) and damage assessments (DA). Ensure that the JIV report is signed in the field by only those who participated and have their own copies. Under no circumstance that JIV report should be prepared by any person, group of persons, agency or company after the visit and be given to people for their signatures. Nobody should sign such report no matter the level of inducement or coercion.
Dont attend any meeting with the polluters or the regulatory agents NOSDRA or both without a formal letter of invitation. Never, attend such meetings on phone call invitations only and also ensure that your technical team attend also.
Ensure to have a copy of the attendance of the meetings duly signed by those present. Also, at the round up of each meeting, the minutes should be read out for every participant to make corrections where necessary and also ensure that everybody have a signed copy before departure. In case of any excuse, insist to have copies snaped with your phones or any other gadget.
In any field trip, be it JIV, PSIA and DA, ensure that you obtain a copy of the manifest of the boat or bus as the case may be. Also, obtain the attendance sheet on site. Make sure if it is not possible to have such copies immediately, take snapshots of the copies with your phones or any other gadget.
Dont accept to fill in any figure on the impacted area column of the JIV template because it is always an assumption by the connivance of the polluters and the personnel of the regulatory agents. Sometimes the ignorance and compromise of the representatives of the state government is not also helping matters. The true area can only be ascertained when proper survey is conducted by professional surveyors.
Make sure you take enough photographs both still and video of the area, the surroundings, the source of spill, every surrounding facility if any. If any security personnel try to stop you, insist that it your right to take every detail of the area as an affected party, because you are on a fact gathering mission. We know that most times security agents are engaged by the polluters to conceal or completely destroy the evidence.
No unsigned document or report of any kind should be accepted, because they are fund of presenting unsigned reports and latter denying it. The present management of NOSDRA is particularly known for this antic. They have done it severally even to the National Assembly.
Anything in form of palliative, relief or in any other name or guise, must not be accepted until all the items are verified, and delivery notes signed by all parties and you are given your own copy. We have cases where what was given to the impacted communities cannot fill the back of a Hilux 4×4 but they claimed to have supplied trailers load of items and a medical outreach which was a big lie without proof.
My dear brothers and sisters, let’s take these tips very serious to stop the unabated oppression and deceit.
God bless you all.
Surv. Furoebi F.S. Akene, is from the Centre for Environmental Preservation and Development – CEPAD –
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