Govt aware of unusual births but yet to make conclusion —Rivers Commissioner for Health . when the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential
Amnesty Programme, PAP, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (retd,) in an interview with this reporter, July, in the heat of the bombing of oil pipelines by militants, disclosed that women were delivering deformed babies and turning barren in the region because of oil pollution, his submission looked incredible. But he was serious.
Meanwhile, he could not place his finger on the affected area. His position was that of a government official advancing reasons militants should stop bombing oil facilities because of the damage to the environment and health of the people.
Bariene …seven-yr-old can’t walk
Investigation on medical changes as a result of oil pollution hit a blank wall in Delta State. The situation was not too clear in Bayelsa although there was an unsubstantiated occurrence in one of the riverine communities in the state. However, Nigerian architect and environmental activist, Rev Nnimmo Bassey, indicated, when contacted, that he had heard about such development somewhere in Ogoniland, Rivers State, but did not have the details.
A Sunday Vanguard reporter in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, capital Davies Iheamnachor, who corroborated Bassey’s claim, said he suspected the development would be around Bodo City and environs in Gokana local government area, but was also not certain.
Thus began the journey to Bodo , where the Federal Government incidentally flagged off the much awaited clean-up of Ogoniland, on Thursday, September 15. Under normal circumstances, a journey from Port Harcourt to Bodo is 30 minutes, but the journey that day took more than two hours because of bad road.
Bodo, a predominant community in Ogoniland, whose ancestors allegedly migrated from Ghana, has about 35 villages with about 62,000 inhabitants. It harbors and admixture of Ibibio, Igbo and Hausa-speaking people and the life of the people revolves around fishing and farming.
The town looked very quiet and, with aluminum zinc roofing in almost all the houses, one could not immediately associate deficiencies with the people until they tell their stories. It is easy to know a visitor and the villagers know themselves. They fixed their eyes on this reporter and his local guide throughout his visit.
A resident, Mr. Cyril Nweke, who spoke dejectedly, said: “We thought our problem was over when the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, paid an out of court settlement of $55 million to the people for oil spillage that devastated their environment and means of livelihood in 2008. Some people rebuilt their houses, built new fish ponds and all that,” he said.
The United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, commissioned by the Federal Government in its report on Ogoniland, and released August, 2011, stated emphatically that the only source of drinking water for the people had been contaminated and they should no longer drink it, not even rain water or eat fish from the river.
“Everyone who has consumed water from contaminated sources should be requested to undertake a comprehensive medical examination by physicians knowledgeable about the possible adverse health effects of the hydrocarbons detected,” the report added.
“It is clear from UNEP’s field observations and scientific investigations that oil contamination in Ogoniland is widespread and severely impacting many components of the environment. The Ogoni people live with this pollution every minute of every day, 365 days a year.
“Since life expectancy in Nigeria is less than 50 years, it is a fair assumption that many members of the current Ogoniland community have lived with chronic oil pollution throughout their lives. Children born in Ogoniland soon sense oil pollution as the odour of hydrocarbons pervades the air day in, day out. Oil continues to spill from periodic pipeline fractures and the i
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