By Emma Amaize

WARRI—CENTRE for Peace and Environmental Justice, CEPEJ, a civil rights group, yesterday, faulted the recent attack on Forcados Terminal, a facility of Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, by a militant group, which caused the alleged loss of about 35,000 barrels of crude oil.

File…Militants

CEPEJ, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Mr Sheriff Mulade, said the act was uncalled for, given the dire economic situation in the country and urged the Federal Government to beef up security around oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta region.

The group advised security agents to unmask the brains behind the heinous crime and make them face the full wrath of the law, saying that no group should hold the country to ransom.

It decried the adverse effects of oil spills on the environment, stating that it would take several years to re-mediate the area devastated by the spills to its pristine nature.

“We sympathize with SPDC over this attack. The harmful effects of oil spills on our environment cannot be over-emphasized. We, therefore, call on the company to move fast to contain the spread of the spills by adopting sound environmental best practices.

“We equally advise that oil companies should scrap obsolete equipment and embrace environmental friendly facilities in their operations. We make bold to reiterate that the over 50 years of oil exploration and exploitation activities in the Niger Delta region have only brought untold hardship to the people.

“The livelihoods of many of our people in the coastal areas have been wiped out even as some communities have been swallowed by ocean surge occasioned by unbridled pollution.

“We all know that oil spills pose serious threats to fresh water and marine environments. They affect surface resources and a wide range of subsurface organisms linked in a complex food chain that includes human food resources. This is why we call on the firm to act, as we understand that the spill is spreading very fast to Bayelsa State,” it added.