Ben Dunno, Warri
Aggrieved Esiegbuya family in Ubeji community in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta state, has decried the health hazards posed to their lives and property as a result of pollutions from gas production processes of Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC), operating in the area
Consequently a 21-day ultimatum has been handed to the management of the company to address issues of hydro carbon emission from its operations, inorder to reduce the devastating health challenges posed to the lives of the residents.
The family who claimed that series of its protest letters to the company through his counsel, J. O. Bakpa of J. Unurhoro & Co, since 2018, had been ignored, warned of unpleasant consequences should the company continue to turn deaf ears to the pleads to tackle the environmental pollutions issues in their area.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Mr. Samuel Esiegbuya Lamented the devastating effects of the carbon emissions from production chimney during combustion on his resident located about 200metres away from the gas plant, stating that apart from the heath hazard of inhaling the deadly carbon for almost a decade, its household property had been severely destroyed by soots.
The letter addressed to Mr. Barau Mohammed Kabir Managing Director NGMC, read in part; “In reference to letter dated 20th December 2018 and 18th November 2019 addressed to your office and all on the above mentioned subject which i am writing to remind you the umpteenth time with displeasure”.
“Sir, It is now however obvious and Crystal, that the letters I have written to you in respect of your hydrocarbon soffocation and other health related issues and also property damage as a result of your hazardous and poisonous Chemical flaring in my area tend to fall on deaf ears and blind eyes and also probably make no sense to you hence there was no response till now”.
“This is even more regrettable as there are no efforts been made by your office to look into the complaint and proffer solution to it in line with code of conduct for public officers and considerations despite visible and unrepelable evidence as regarding the complaint”.
“Sir, with all due respect to your office and without mincing words I can really not figure out that a complaint of this kind and with bogus in nature was brought against your company and up till this moment that I am writing again nothing absolutely has been done to avert or ameliorate the problems as stated in our series of lettes to your office”
“Permit me therefore to conclude at this point that your silence on this deadly and horrific complaint to you is not only callous but also worse than extra judicial punishment and criminal”.
“Partinenently, I have been living with members of my household and family here for over a decade before two years ago that I personally removed my family from here because of intermittent health complications owing this hazardous and poisonous substances from your production”
“Let it made categorically clear that due to flare gasses with toxic effects on us and It is basically true that we cannot move our property away from here because of your production flare emitting poisonous substances daily to the negative effects of our lives and property damage in the surrounding area”.
“As permitted and allowed by law as a family and I must say this with all humility and unequivocally that this action of not attending to the matter appropriately is nothing other pure disregard to the right of existence of people and total abuse of public office you presently occupied”.
“It would interest you to know that in all the years we have been living here we have been experiencing different kind of ailments such as; poor visibility, Contaminated drinking waters and food poisoning due to the flaring from your production plant very close to our residents”
Others are; Excessive body heats and excruciating pains, skin irritations and rashes, sleeplessness during the night and at siestas as we often experience difficulty in breathing and nasal congestions with nostrils fill with black carbon, particularly at wee hours of the day”,
“Our clothes are usually stained with hydrocarbon, defacing of our walls, fences, interlocking stones, tiles, decay building materials in the surrounding area were your production activities is been carried out”.
“In addition to all these, I have had two cases of tenants who moved out of the area on the grounds of the same complain of chemical reactions and carbon dust flaring all over their apartments and vehicles even when their rents has not expired”.
“Saddly enough, we have been exposed to all these health hazards and challenges without even a pittance or health compensation been paid to us to alliviate our sufferings.”
“Consequent upon this Sir, this will be the very last letter i would be writing you on this issue and failure to act according this time around, might force me to sue or embark on act of activism as provided for by law to press home demands in a civilized society”, he warned.
But in swift reaction to the allegation, Head, Public Affairs NGMC, Mr. Darlington Samuel, dismissed the claim as untrue, insisting that its operations in the area was mostly devoid of hydro-carbon emissions that causes hazardious pollution i the air.
He maintained that as a company into gas production the carbons that comes with the process are usually converted and cannot therefore be emitted in form of gas flare injurious to human health and property.
While acknowledging the fact that there are times they have condesate as a by product in the process of gas production which they disposed of as waste product through burning, he however noted that such occurrences are very rare as they occured once every 5 years.