Ejiofor Alike
5 November 2008
Lagos — Foremost Niger Delta Leader, Chief Edwin Clarke, yesterday said there are about 14,000 pending court cases on compensation brought by various host communities against oil companies operating in the Niger Delta.
Speaking in Abuja at the plenary session of the on-going Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR)'s 13th Health Safety and Environment (HSE) biennial international conference on the oil and gas industry, Clarke said about S100million worth of compensation are being sought by the affected communities.
"The major oil companies believe that when they say sabotage, no compensation will be paid".
"As I talk to you now, there are about 14,000 cases on compensation brought by various host communities against oil companies. And what is the amount involved? About $100million and they don't want to pay", he said.
According to him, "they make sure that their lawyers go to court to frustrate the host communities. I am a witness; I am an observer; I am a participant,". Clarke, who was the Minister of Information during the First Republic, said payment of adequate compensation to host communities would ensure security of oil and gas operation in the region.
"We talk about environmental pollution in oil and gas producing areas; we talk about oil spills. There are between 369 and 400 spills a year in the Niger Delta; that is about one per day; polluting the rivers, the forests and everywhere in the Niger Delta".
"What Nigeria understands is to call a dog a bad name and kill it. The youth are responsible for damaging the pipelines. What government fails to realise is that in other parts of the world where they have these pipelines, there is a number of years for them to be changed".
"But sometimes in Nigeria, 35 to 40 years, they have not been changed and when they burst and oil spills, it is the youth of Niger Delta that is responsible. There is no doubt that we have sabotage going on, but to say that every oil spill in the Niger Delta is as a result of sabotage is unfair and unjust," he said.
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