Tag: Rivers State

The Kpean Community in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State has lamented what it described as an unprecedented environmental and humanitarian crisis following a devastating oil spill that occurred in the area.

The Kpean Council of Chiefs and Elders, who toured the site, said the spill destroyed hectares of farmland, polluted rivers, and rendered the air unsafe for human habitation.

Speaking while inspecting the site at the weekend, Chief Anthony Waadah, Gbenemene of Legbo Kingdom and President of the Ogoni Association of Business Owners in America (OABOA) described the disaster as “total and unacceptable.”

Waadah appealed to the Federal Government to clean up the mess caused by many years of oil exploration before talking about resuming fresh oil production from Ogoniland.

Read Also: IK Ogbonna condemns ‘politics’ in Nigerian cinema industry

“For decades, our rivers, farmlands, and communities have suffered in total disregard for international best practices”, he said.

Waadah said HYPREP was expected to clean up Ogoniland and cushion the effects of continuous pollution

Pointing at the spill site, Waadah said: “Even animals are dying here. How can humans survive in these conditions? Yet the federal government, the presidency, and the Minister of Environment appear unconcerned. This is not charity — this is justice we are demanding.”

He called on the international community to investigate and hold Shell and NNPCL accountable, saying: “We cannot continue to live in fear every day. The world must see what we are passing through.”

The Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency (RSIPA) has introduced new measures aimed at enhancing the ease of doing business (EoDB) in the state, in a bid to restore the confidence of the business community.

Speaking at the breakout session of RSIPA during the ongoing 18th Port Harcourt International Trade Fair at the Obi Wali International Cultural Centre, Director-General Chamberlain Peterside highlighted the agency’s plans to reposition the state as a prime investment destination.

Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China, expressed support for RSIPA’s initiatives but emphasized the need to first safeguard existing businesses in the state before promoting new investments.

RSIPA, alongside top investors and business regulators at both local and national levels, called for coordinated strategies to address what they described as “Perception Risks” that have historically painted the state as a challenging environment for business.

Read Also: Fuba ra pledges Rivers’ support for late Bayelsa dep gov Ewhrujakpor’s burial

Dr. Peterside acknowledged past challenges where regulatory hurdles had made investment difficult but stressed that the agency is now focused on actionable solutions and tangible results, in line with its board’s mission. He concluded by declaring that Rivers State is “back to business.”

“We are not naïve to believe that either by some form of magic we can suddenly turn the fortunes of the State and attract all the investments we desire. 

“Our task is no mean feat. We are dealing with the perception risk that over several years branded the state as unsafe. We are also faced with the challenges of dealing with the lack of cohesion amongst MDAs, policy inconsistencies, multiple taxation, incessant harassment by miscreants, red tape and delays in obtaining operating permits, high cost of operations and opaque public sector.” he stated.

Peterside said the agency was not there to dwell on challenges but to focus on action, solutions, and results. He said it is about listening to the investors in the field and ensuring that MDAs were carried along, hence the imperative for the setting up of our One-Stop-Center (OSC).”

He called it the practical game-changer never experienced before in the annals of Rivers State.

Speaking on how the plans of the investment promotion agency can materialize, the Mayor of Housing who was presented at the event as a star investor and keen promoter of Rivers State reputation, advised that an enabling law should replace the Executive Order that established the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency. This, he said, is to insulate the Agency from political instability and remove fear in the minds of investors about its sustainability. 

The Mayor of Housing ( A real Estate Investor) cautioned the protection precedes promotion, thus, businesses in the state desire protection before anything else. 

He said Local Direct Investment (LDIs) is what attracts and promotes Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs), citing an African proverb that says; ‘It is the rat at home that reveals to the one in the bush that there is fish in the kitchen’.

‎

‎China said he discovered opportunities in Port Harcourt when he arrived there city and found it was locked out by information. 

‎

‎The CEO of the Housing and Construction Mayor Limited, owners of the Alesa Highlands Sustainable Green Smart City, said that Port Harcourt is like a business empire under lock and key because it is not protecting it’s own and also not promoting it’s own enough for investors to come in.

‎

‎In the area of land documentation and inventory, China urged Rivers State Government to borrow a leave from Abuja and adopt the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in dealing with land and property registration and documentation for ease of doing business by elimination of land fraud. 

‎He said Lagos understood the power of business information. “This creates the impression that if you are not doing it in Lagos, you are not doing it in Africa.”

Series of oil and gas leakages, spillages, wellhead blowouts in different oil bearing communities of Rivers State, have sparked fear and tension among residents of the concerned places.

The latest is the well blowout reported in Kpean Community, Khana Local Government, where a massive substance suspected to be crude oil is seriously pumping out from the wellhead, spreading all through the environment.

The incident which was reportedly noticed Thursday has been nonstop.

The Nation can authoritatively report that the affected has been engulfed in inferno as a result of the spill.

The leakages in the community’s river is said to be ongoing for at least one month now, without any form of intervention from the oil and gas regulatory bodies.

Before that of Bille, a massive oil spill had been recorded in Oshi community in Ahoada West Local Government Area.

Residents of the areas are currently living in panic.

Read Also: Shettima reaffirms Tinubu administration’s commitment to traditional institutions

Besides the choking stench and emissions into their environment, apparently from the leaking sites and its obvious health hazards, residents fear there could be a possible fire outbreak which could render devastating destruction across the communities.

The distraught residents therefore urged the Federal Government regulatory bodies, the indigenous oil companies operating the facilities to intervene to forestall any untoward havoc.

Meanwhile, an environmental activist group in Port Harcourt, the state capital, the Youth and Environmental Advocacy Centre(YEAC-Nigeria), has blamed the indigenous oil companies for accepting to buy oil facilities whose pipes and well heads have long expired.

In a statement by the Executive Director of YEAC, Dr. Dumnamene Fyneface Dumnamene, the group regretted that Niger Delta environs could suffer more pollution and degradation under the current operators than the time of multinational companies.