The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC on Monday in Abuja inaugurated a special investigative panel on oil spills and environmental pollution in Nigeria.
Speaking at the event, the commission's Executive Secretary, Prof Bem Angwe decried the failure of oil companies to attend to environmental pollution in their areas of operation.
He said that the panel was the commission's response to the myriad of petitions it had received on oil spills and environmental pollution.
"Several communities from the South-South geo-political zone have inundated the commission with complaints on oil spills and environmental degradation by oil companies operating in their communities.
"The complainants alleged that most of these oil spills were either improperly cleaned or no effort was made to clean them at all resulting in damage to both aquatic life and farmlands,’’ he said.
One of the communities whose petition the panel will be looking into is the Akwa Ibom Oil Producing Community Development Network, AKIPCON.
The President-General of AKIPCON, Mr Ufot Phenson told the press that oil pollution was threatening the lives of the people and could lead to youth restiveness getting out of hand.
"We have written to the oil companies in regard to the hardship they are putting us through.
I am talking about Mobil in particular. Shell also has an oil well that exploded in 2006 and spilled into farmlands but there has been no clean up and no compensation to the people.
"Youths have become restive and security that we are known for is threatened.
I hope the commission will help us to achieve a better environment because we want our environment to be clean.
"The abuse on human lives and the environment is getting out of hand as farmers can no longer plant their crops and fishermen can no longer make any catch.
"We wrote to National Oil Spill Detection Agency (NOSDRA). We wrote to the presidency and past and present governors of Akwa Ibom.
"We also wrote to Ministry of Environment in the state all to no avail.
"So, coming to the commission is our last resort, and we hope the panel will investigate the atrocities and help bring succour to us because it is a crime against humanity and must be stopped in the interest of our existence," he said.
The Chairman of the panel, Mrs Oti Ovrawah, assured that her team would work assiduously to investigate the petitions and make appropriate and timely recommendations.
NAN.
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