Leadership (Abuja)
Osa Okhomina
5 November 2009
Yenagoa — Indigenes and traditional heads of Gbarantoru community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, yesterday explained why they raised alarm over the new gas flaring furnace by the Shell Petroleum Development Company(SPDC),saying it was not part of the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) signed with the people.
The community had accused SPDC of igniting a new gas flare site about 120 metres from human settlement at a time conscious efforts were on to end gas flaring which is partly responsible for global climate change.
An indigene of the community, Mr. Bubaraye Dakolo, who conducted newsmen to the site, said they were taken aback by the action of the company especially at a time when efforts were on to put an end to gas flaring worldwide due to its negative effect on the environment.
"By the emission and flaring of this noxious substance into our environment, Shell has decided to deny us an environment safe enough for our development. "
"We are not only very apprehensive, we are aware of the dangers of gas flare. As you can observe the flare point is just about a 120 metres from our living homes.
"This thing was not here last week. And, it shouldn't be here either, because we are not talking about any benefits here; you don't need to die to get benefits. Shell should not gas us to death. If we go through the main entrance now you will notice men of the Joint Task Force there and they will deny us access to the site.
"We want Shell to relocate this gas flare from our environment. Luckily, I was part of the GMoU between Shell and the cluster communities, they did not state that gas would be flared in our community.
"All we knew was that a gas gathering plant would be sited around here and that the product would be channeled to Bonny in Rivers State .
"Apart from the huge economic waste in flaring gas, its danger, are grave. If you take a look at our roofs you will notice that there are heavy settlement of soot on them. You can see that we can no longer drink water from the rain."
Also reacting to the development, ERA Field Officer in Bayelsa State , Mr. Alagoa Morris, called on the company to stop the flare.
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