By Samuel Oyadongha

YENAGOA—MULTINATIONAL oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region have been called upon to take serious, the issue of protection of the environment,  particularly in the areas of crude oil pollution and gas flaring.

Dickson Seriake

Bayelsa State governor, Mr Seriake Dickson, made the appeal yesterday in Yenagoa during at a meeting with the management of Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC and Shell  Petroleum Development Company, SPDC.

The governor decried the level of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region, noting that no serious effort had been made to address the menace,  despite the outcry of the people over the years.

Dickson, who described Bayelsa as a state with an unenviable title of pollution, stressed the need for effective collaboration between the government and oil companies to tackle the menace with a view to ensuring peace, stability and development.

Dickson also congratulated Mr. Alessandro Tiani on his appointment as the new General Manager, District, NAOC and expressed optimism that, he would employ his wealth of experience to push the frontiers of development.

His words: “I will like to use this opportunity to once again restate the stand of Bayelsa State Government on the need for the protection of the environment and for your company and other oil majors to show greater environment responsibility in this area.

“Due to the constant pollution that we have suffered as a people over the years, this state now bears the unenviable title of environmental pollution.”