NIGERIA (Bayelsa)-Governor Henry Seriake Dickson has advocated stringent environmental laws to protect and preserve the environment from what he described as act of environmental terrorism by the oil companies.

He said this on Tuesday when members of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), under the leadership of Major Lancelot Anyanya (rtd), paid him a courtesy visit in Government House, Yenagoa.

According to Governor Dickson, oil companies were fond of abandoning crude oil spill sites without properly cleaning them, adding that such site had ravaged environment in the region citing Bayelsa as the worst hit.

“I have said it before that what has been going on in Bayelsa State, the Niger Delta and in all oil-producing areas concerning the levity with which oil companies treat the issues of the environment and the maintenance of environmental and health standards.

“When you look at all of these and particularly listening to your chilly statistics, which I believe is only a tip of the iceberg, one is really left with no other conclusion than that, we are actually facing a case of environmental terrorism.

“What has been going on in the Niger Delta since the discovery of oil; a situation where more than one spill takes place in Bayelsa every day, going by what your statistics is telling us and all these sites are treated with reckless abandon and the environment is left to fend for itself, the livelihood and in fact the lives of the people and the ecosystem are not attended to. What then is more of terrorist action than this?” Governor Dickson said.

While emphasising the need for international oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region to protect the environment, Governor Dickson said an environmental summit would be organised by his administration soon to discuss ways of mitigating the effects of oil and gas exploration and exploitation in the region, as he assured NOSDRA of  his administration’s commitment towards facilitating the speedy passage of the amended Act of the agency, which had undergone its first and second readings at the National Assembly.

He granted the request of NOSDRA for a functional office in the state and called on the agency to site its headquaters  in Bayelsa.

He described the state as the host to the bulk of oil and gas operations in the region.

As part of efforts to address environmental problems, Dickson proposed that the Federal Government should build receptacles to evacuate crude oil recovered from illegal refineries.

He also asked the the government to design mechanisms for effective and proper remediation of impacted areas.

“This is an opportunity again for us to remind ourselves that we all have a duty to work together as government to government and it is also an opportunity for us to call on all stakeholders especially the oil companies, regulatory agencies and everybody to be alive to the need to protect our environment”, he said.

Speaking during the meeting with the governor, Mr. Peter Idabo, a team leader of the NOSDRA delegates said they were in the state of President Goodluck Jonathan to assess spill sites in various communities.

Idabo said environmental pollution arising from crude oil spills in Bayelsa could only be compared to similar disaster in Ogoni, Rivers State.

Idabo and his team first visited Well 12 operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) near Imiringi in Ogbia local government area.

“Pollution in Bayelsa is very rife, it is like what is happening in Ogoniland”, he said.

He, however, observed that Well 12 where a truck discharged pollutants last year, had been cleaned.

Furthermore, Idabo said the visit of spill sites in the state was part of activities lined up by the agency in its tour of oil-producing states, while assuring the Governor that the agency would do everything within its power to collaborate with him in tackling problems of oil spills in the country.

In his remarks, Chairman of NOSDRA, Major Lancelot Anyanya (rtd), explained that the visit was aimed at strengthening the existing collaboration between government and the agency on efforts at curbing oil spills and its attendant effects.