The Chairman of the Bayelsa State Council of Traditional Rulers, King Bubaraye Dakolo, says he, alongside his subjects, is among the living dead due to environmental degradation and pollution unleashed by international oil companies (IOCs).

Speaking during the international conference on petroleum pollution and just transition in the Niger Delta: Advancing the recommendations of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission (BSOEC), held in Abuja on Wednesday, he recalled that he was at the receiving end of pollution when Shell Oil Firm got as close as a 100-metre radius to his palace while carrying out their exploratory activities.

The monarch explained that his plight was a microcosm of what the entire people of oil-bearing communities in Bayelsa who have lost their means of livelihood due to oil exploration and exploitation go through on a daily basis.

The monarch wondered why the people of the state were being subjected to such a harrowing experience when they were supposed to be pampered for catering to the needs of the country for the last 70 years.Stressing the need to restore the environment and rehabilitate his subjects, he noted that any day that passes without implementation of the report of BSOEC is tantamount to the loss of more lives and livelihoods in the state.?

For many days that pass without implementation of the recommendations as contained in this pivotal scientific report, it means that lives are being lost. And to also want to continue to increase the number of barrels from the area without first carrying out recommendations amounts to callousness and insensitivity on the part of the federal government of Nigeria.

?To continue to increase the number of barrels without carrying out recommendations amounts to callousness and insensitivity of the government of Nigeria. You can?t enjoy the goodies of oil when Bayelsans are dying daily.

?We can?t farm, we can?t fish anymore. And the nation has fenced us out from the oil industry as participants. We are not employed there; we don?t have oil blocks there, as our lands have now become other people?s private businesses.?

He thanked Governor Diri Douye and his predecessor, Seriake Dickson, for their foresight and ability to sustain what he termed the ?time-tested findings of the study? that have exposed the devastating effects of oil exploration on the people of Bayelsa State.

The study carried out by a team of independent experts in various fields of human endeavours from across the world recommended, among others, a concerted international action to generate and invest at least $12 billion over the course of 12 years to repair, remediate, and restore the environmental and public health damage caused by oil and gas, and to lay the foundations for Bayelsa?s just transition towards renewable energy and opportunities for alternative livelihoods. (The Guardian)

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