Gabriel Ewepu

The Egi people of Rivers State has accused the Nigerian unit of French oil giant, Total E & P Nigeria, of polluting their land since 1964 till date, with little or no effort towards remediating the affected areas.

This was contained in a letter made available to Sweetcrude, where it further slammed the oil major of insincerity in carrying out its corporate social responsibility.

The letter, which was addressed to the United Nations Human Rights Council, and signed by a number of the Egi community leaders, also accused Total of planning to divest its equity interest the Egi project to a Chinese firm, not minding the environmental crisis it has plunged the community.

The letter reads in part: “Egi Land in Rives State of Nigeria is host to Total Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited (TEPNG). With about 12.5 percent of the onshore oil production of Nigeria, Egi land is the highest oil producing community in Rivers State, and in Nigeria.

“TEPNG having contributed largely to the environmental and socio-economic destruction of Egi land by its oil and gas activities over the period 1964 to 2015. Also, as a result of insincerity in carrying out her corporate social responsibilities, (TEPN) is reportedly making surreptitious efforts to divest its equity interest apparently to a foreign Chinese company, without due regard to the sorry state it has plunged Egi land.”

As a result, the community called for forensic environmental audit of the affected areas of their territory by the UN Human Rights Council and other human rights organisations.

“This letter is a clarion call to UN Human Rights Council and other human rights organisations worldwide, to kindly take all necessary steps to ensure that a forensic environmental audit of Egi Land is carried out by United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, as a matter of urgency.

“We are also forwarding this request to the Federal Government of Nigeria, and to the Rivers State Government of Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Eze Zion Omekwe, during a One Day Strategy/Sensitisation Meeting of Egi Clan, and the Operation of the Total/FINA/ELF Nigeria Ltd, called for the relocation of the people from their present settlement in view of their nearness to oil wells and pipelines.

He said: “It can be seen that most oil wells are in the people’s kitchen and backyard which pose hazards to the people, and if otherwise the people would have been relocated as a measure of Nigerian decree of 1986 on environment. This calls for the review of the environmental impact assessment and the MoU.

“We believe that a key component of this process and struggle is environment audit of Egi clan. To this end a detailed report of the perilous state of the entire clan, resulting from decades of human rights abuses of the environment, land grabbing and environmental impact statement be revisited,” he added.