The Association of Environmental Lawyers of Nigeria (AELN), Rivers State Chapter, has declared its willingness to interface with oil and gas companies operating in the State to reduce the level of environmental pollution in the State.
The National President of the association and Associate Professor of Energy and Environmenal Law, Dr. Samuel Chisa Dike, who dropped this hint in an exclusive interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, said the association was taking the step in order for the companies to reduce their environmental pollution footprints in the State.
According to him, there is need for oil and gas companies operating in the State to adopt what happens in the United Kingdom and other developed nations by reducing drastically their carbon footprints.
Dike explained that mechanics, automobile and oil and gas companies constitute the worst agents of pollution in Nigeria, and therefore, appealed to them to do something to actually safeguard the environment.
According to him, Rivers Sate is heavily polluted as a result of soot.
He said the association was going to interface with the companies first before resorting to litigation or class action, contending that carbon emission is the major cause of soot being experienced in the State.
“The environment is clean but it is being degraded by human beings. We are going to interface with the companies and appeal to them. We are going to sue industries that are pollution-prone. If they fail to do something, we resort to redress, litigation or class action,” he said.
Dike indicated that the organisation would also talk with the government and the organised private sector, stressing that the restoration of the ecosystem is very important.
Meanwhile, the Association of Environmental Lawyers of Nigeria (AELN), has partnered with the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Port Harcourt Branch, in a bid to actualise its determination to champion the protection and restoration of the environment in Rivers State.
To this end, the executive of the association recently paid a sensitisation visit to the Chairman of NBA, Port Harcourt Branch, Prince O. Nyekwere in his office in Port Harcourt and inaugurated him as a Green Advocate of the Environment as well as challenged him and the Bar to join the vanguard of those fighting against environmental pollution in the State.
The National President of the association, Dr. Samuel Chisa Dike, who briefed him on the activities of the body, intimated him of the steps the organisation was taking to remedy the environment.
In his response, Prince Nyekwere assured that NBA would partner with the body in the cause and regretted that the government was not doing much in that direction.
Nyekwere said companies operating in the country rather prefer to pay penalties instead of stopping gas flaring, stressing that artisanal refining also known as kpofire is what is causing the soot the state is experiencing.
According to him, “we need to be proactive.”

By: Donatus Ebi