FoE Nigeria delivers 10,000 signatures to the President
On June 16, 2009, Friends of the Earth Nigeria's Nnimmo Bassey delivered a petition calling on the government of Nigeria to enforce the law and immediately end gas flaring in the Niger Delta.
The petition was submitted in 3 bound volumes to Abdul Oroh, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation in Edo State. The Commissioner promised to forward the signatures to the Nigerian President.
After receiving the petition Mr Oroh stated that he was opposed to gas flaring and would have loved to have signed the petition himself had he been aware of it.
He also stated that the government of Edo State, Nigeria, is opposed to gas flaring because of its wastefulness and harm to human health and the environment.
Addressing the media, Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of Friends of the Earth Nigeria and also Chair of Friends of the Earth International, criticised the government for allowing the transnational oil companies to dictate when it would be convenient to end gas flaring in the Niger Delta.
He said that the situation had not only affected the lives of the inhabitants of the region adversely, but was also an economic waste. If the flared gas was harnessed it could serve the country's energy needs, instead $2.5 billion literally goes up in smoke every year.
Background
The first attempt at forcing oil corporations operating in the Niger
Delta to end gas flaring was in 1969 when the administration of General
Yakubu Gowon ordered them to put in place facilities to utilise
associated gas within five years.
Five years later after the oil companies had done nothing to
harness the flares the government moved the deadline to 1979. For forty years that deadline has been shifting and oil companies operating in the region have never been penalised for missing it.
Friends of the Earth International hopes the receipt of this petition will at last mark the beginning of the end of gas flaring in the Niger Delta.
take action
Keep the pressure on Shell and sign our petition to urge the outgoing Shell CEO to make the right choice and end gas flaring in Nigeria once and for all.
Sign the petition here
