Environmental activist and Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, has urged the Federal Government to immediately commence a comprehensive environmental audit of the Niger Delta as a prelude to the cleanup of the oil-polluted region.

Bassey said the time for debating whether the Niger Delta should be cleaned up had passed, stressing that urgent action is needed to assess the extent of environmental degradation and begin remediation efforts.

His call came as oil host communities in the region demanded a review of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), faulting provisions that place responsibility for oil theft and pipeline vandalism on host communities.

The traditional ruler of Upata Kingdom in Ahoada East Local Council Area of Rivers State, King Felix Otuwarikpo, said that although the PIA provides a percentage of host community funds for the repair of damaged oil assets in cases of sabotage, oil companies had continued to rely on security agencies to protect pipelines while sidelining host communities.

Bassey, Otuwarikpo and other stakeholders spoke on Monday at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Correspondents’ Chapel Week organised by the Rivers State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt.

Delivering the keynote address on the theme “The Imperative of Comprehensive Cleanup of the Niger Delta Environment: Role of the Media,” Bassey described the scale of environmental pollution in the Niger Delta as alarming.

According to him, the volume of oil spilt daily in the region was comparable to the entire Deepwater Horizon disaster of April 20, 2010, caused by an explosion on a BP-operated drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 workers and spilt about 134 million gallons of crude oil over 87 days.

He accused oil regulators, political leaders, and industry authorities of deliberate silence over the environmental crisis in the region.