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Chevron’s Apoi North Wellhead Gas Explosion Rages spilling oil and Ruining Livelihoods
GPS Coordinates: For Koluama 1 community: Elev 9m, N04°28.301’, E005°46.511’, About 300 metres to the burning site: Elev 9m, N04°21.984’, E005°46.360’
Koluama 1 and Koluama 2 are Ijaw communities in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State at the tip of the Atlantic Ocean. The people are mostly fisherfolks that derive their livelihood from the Ocean. ERA/FoEN Field monitors were in the community [Koluama 1] on the 18th of January, following information about a Chevron Gas Wellhead that exploded while a rig was working at the site on 16th January 2012.
When monitors arrived at the community, Chairman, Koluama Council of Chiefs, Chief Christian Munghanbofa-Akpele confirmed the incident and gave approval for some youths to lead the visitors to the site of interest in the Atlantic Ocean. Some testimonies and observations follow below.
Press Release
Removal is Scandalous, Unacceptable, ERA insists
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has flayed the Federal Government’s removal of the so-called subsidy on petroleum products with effect from January 1, 2012, describing the decision as “complete insensitivity” to the articulated views of the Nigerian masses who insist the way to go is to fight corruption in the sector and to make the nation’s ailing refineries work.
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), in a statement signed by its Executive Secretary, Reginald Stanley, had announced the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) on January 1, 2012, claiming the decision was informed by extensive consultation with stakeholders across the nation.
It also said that in the coming weeks, it will work with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and engage stakeholders in further consultation to ensure the continuation of the exercise.
But in a statement denouncing the government move, ERA/FoEN insisted that the “sham” which the PPPRA dubbed national consultation on which it based the decision to remove the so-called subsidy was a crude smokescreen to usher in a new era of impoverishment for Nigerians.
Headliners
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Nnimmo Bassey's interview with Democracy Now!
Wednesday, 7th December 2011
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COP17 Global Day of Action
Sunday, 4th December 2011
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Wrong Climate for Damming Rivers
Friday, 2nd December 2011
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ERA Trains Journalists on Environmental Reporting in Enugu
Tuesday, 4th October 2011
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Will Rio + 20 Forget Rio?
Tuesday, 4th October 2011
Oil Politics
Tell it to the President
The Nation-wide strike in Nigeria against petrol price hike, enters Day Four as this is being written. Nigerians woke up at the dawn of the New Year to learn that price of a litre of petrol had been jerked up by about one hundred and twenty per cent. Petrol now costs 141 Naira and 200 Naira (about one US dollar) per litre in an economy where the minimum wage is 18,000 Naira (about one hundred and ten US dollars). We note that even before the organised labour call out workers on strike, citizens had already hit the streets in protest against what they see as an insensitive and unacceptable action by the government. The response of government to the massive uprising has been rather worrisome. First of all the government presents a face that says there are no options to the move they have made. The speeches by the president and the many presentations by the governor of the Nigerian Central Bank, the ministers of Labour/Productivity, Petroleum Resources, Information and the Minister of Finance, remain persistently paternalistic and convey the message that they do not hear the dissensions across the nation. In moments of dramatic expression, the Minister of Petroleum Resources demonstrated on television how the government’s hands are tied on the matter of fighting the rot in the petroleum sector. It would be interesting to know why the government allows itself to be bound hand and foot by thieves!
ERA has recently received information that a group calling itself the "Niger Delta Coalition in the Diaspora" is still engaging itself in activities and communications giving the impression that it is linked with Environmental Rights Action (ERA).
This group issues out communications using ERA's headquarter address and mail box. We have never had any ties with this group and any views, comments or opinions expressed by them is not endorsed or authorized by any member of management or staff of ERA.
In the event of any ecological disaster or threat to the environment, call our toll-free GREEN LINES: 08031230088 & 08031230089
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