The Nigerian Associa tion of Chambers of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), has disagreed with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia's recent statement that any attempt to enforce an immediate gas flares-out, would affect revenue accruing to the government.

NACCIMA President, Dr. Simon Okolo, who reacted after a meeting with NACCIMA Executives in Lagos, said that government must take firm decision to gas flaring because of the danger it poses to the economy particularly the agricultural sector.

He argued that this has becomes necessary as gas flaring has been adversely affecting the agricultural production through acid rains.

"The damaging effects of gas flaring on crop yield and vegetation through acid rain , includes increased risk of respiratory illness asthma, cancer, bronchitis, blindness, decreased lung function, impotency, miscarriages and premature deaths etc," he said.

The Association, he said, is quite aware that Nigeria is a signatory to the Kyoto protocol, which stipulated binding limitations on emission of gases, and as a participant in the Copenhagen summit, the federal government must convince Nigerians and the international community that it is really serious at ending gas flares in the country estimated to account for 12.5 percent of the world's gas flaring.

According to him, merely fixing dates to stop gas flaring will never work out if government does not make fresh investments in gas gathering plants as made out by the oil companies.