A non-government organisation, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) has demanded a comprehensive clean up of oil impacted communities, and called for revamping of the ecosystem in Niger Delta region.

The Centre also stated that the region has generated immense revenue for Nigeria, and its people have faced environmental devastation, loss of livelihoods, destruction of lives and property, leading to air pollution, water, and soil.

Its Executive Director, Monday Osasah, in a media parley in Abuja, regretted that over six decades, the region that was once fertile and beaming with life has endured the heavy burden of crude oil exploration and exploitation.

Osasah explained that it has borne the brunt of oil extraction, suffering ecological degradation, stressing, this devastation, exacerbated by a dysfunctional and compromised environmental regulatory system, has made the region one of the worst oil and gas-polluted regions in the world.

“There have been 16,263 oil spills between 2006 and 2023, amounting to approximately 823,483 barrels of oil spilled. These figures, however, are just a fraction of the reality, excluding many of the ones that are suppressed estimates by key operators in the oil and gas Industry,” Osasah stressed.

He called for a strengthened advocacy for the full implementation of the UNEP Report recommendations to clean up Ogoniland and other impacted areas in the Niger Delta, demanding accountability from duty bearers and to contribute to a roadmap that will ensure a healthier and more.

“The ecosystem has been plagued by unprecedented pollution from petroleum production activities for about seventy years. Yet, the response from the successive administrations has been inadequate. The Ogoni clean-up is progressing at the snail’s pace.”