Diri presents Bayelsa environmental report to Tinubu, laments pollution, delayed East-West Road completion
By Jeffrey Agbo
Bayelsa State Governor Senator Douye Diri on Tuesday presented a report on the environmental challenges facing his state to President Bola Tinubu during a visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Diri expressed concern over the severe environmental pollution caused by the activities of oil companies, which he said was affecting both the health of the people and the state’s economy.
Senator Diri, who led a delegation of Bayelsa political and traditional leaders as well as president of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Prof. Benjamin Okaba, and president of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Comrade Jonathan Lokpobiri, during the visit, formally presented the report of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environment Commission (BSOEC) titled: “An Environmental Genocide: Counting the Human and Environmental Cost of Oil in Bayelsa, Nigeria,” to President Tinubu.
The international commission chaired by a former Archbishop of York, Rt. Rev (Dr.) John Sentamu, was constituted in 2019 by his predecessor, Senator Seriake Dickson, and first unveiled at the House of Lords, London, in May 2023 and recently in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on October 28, 2024.
Diri solicited the intervention of the country’s leader in addressing the environmental hazards plaguing the state, saying they were affecting its economy and causing serious health challenges for the people.
While thanking the President for commencing the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project, the Bayelsa governor appealed to him to look into the deplorable state of the East-West Road, saying its construction was yet to be completed years after the project commenced.
He said his administration has embarked on various strategic projects, including ongoing construction of the Nembe-Brass and Yenagoa-Oporoma-Ukubie road projects and solicited his support to enable the state complete the federal projects.
Governor Diri extended invitation to the President to inaugurate the completed Sagbama-Ekeremor road and perform the flag-off of the Ekeremor-Agge Road, which creates an access to the Atlantic Ocean and a way to boost the country’s blue economy.
He also recalled the wrongful revocation of the licence of the state-owned Atala Oil Field (OML 46) by the previous administration and appealed for re-allocation of the oil asset to the state.
The Bayelsa helmsman equally thanked the president for appointing a daughter of the state, Didi Walson-Jack, as Head of the Civil Service of the Federation as well as other Bayelsa indigenes into various positions in his administration.
Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting, Diri said: “Economic activities of our people have been grounded, and till date, you still have oil pollution all over the state.
“The oil companies extracting crude from the state are liable for various diseases and sicknesses as most of their facilities keep failing because they have become obsolete.
“As I speak with you, issues about cancer are now almost a normal thing in Bayelsa State. We have a report that has traced it to the activities of the oil companies and oil exploration that had resulted in very bizarre types of sicknesses that were not hitherto known to the people of Bayelsa State.”
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He said the BSOEC report, when implemented, will address the existing challenges, wondering that despite Bayelsa’s historical significance in making Nigeria an oil producing country, the state was still short-changed by the Federal Government and the oil companies on the issue of personal income tax of the oil workers in the state.
“We all know the history of the discovery of oil in Nigeria and what made Nigeria an oil producing country is because of Bayelsa State. Oil was first struck in commercial quantity at a place called Oloibiri. That discovery made Nigeria to be internationally recognised as an oil producing country. But we have not got the returns of that asset in our land in the way that we would have expected.
“I feel the recommendation in that report are all implementable to the letter and as a state we believe that the report contains what Bayelsa has been crying about over the years.”
Governor Diri described Bayelsa as the home of the Ijaw people and that the delegation of leaders of the ethnic nationality came to show appreciation to the president.
“We are here as a state delegation representing the government and the people of Bayelsa State.
“As a culture of the Ijaws, we came on behalf of our people to acknowledge, appreciate and thank Mr. President for appointing our daughter as the Head of Service of the Federation and our sons into various positions of trust.
“The truth is that Bayelsa is the melting pot of all Ijaws. So, we came as a state delegation to appreciate the president for these very important appointments and we believe that our daughters and our sons will add value to his administration,” he said.
The delegation included former Governor of Rivers State and the Amanyanabo of Twon-Brass, King Alfred Diete-Spiff, Senators Konbowei Benson (Bayelsa Central) and Benson Agadaga (Bayelsa East), members of the House of Representatives, Dr. Fred Agbedi (Sagbama/Ekeremor Federal Constituency) and his Nembe/Brass Federal Constituency counterpart, Marie Ebikake as well as the Speaker of the Bayelsa House of Assembly, Abraham Ingobere.
Others are the immediate past Bayelsa deputy governor, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John-Jonah (rtd), Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Dr. Sam Ogbuku, one of his predecessors, Chief Ndutimi Alaibe, national chairman of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Amb. Boladei Igali, chairman of the Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council and Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom, King Bubaraye Dakolo, and the Managing Director of Niger Delta Basin Development Authority, Prince Ebitimi Amgbare.
Head of Service of the Federation, Walson-Jack, was also present.