Reps Summon Mele Kyari

A joint committee of the House of Representatives has summoned the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, to appear before it on May 8 over a probe into environmental degradation caused by the activities of oil companies in oil producing communities in the country.

The Chairman House Committee on Environment, Pondi Julius Gbabojor, issued the summon in Abuja at an investigative hearing on the need to investigate the service and unprecedented environmental damage within the communities.

Also to appear before the joint committees comprising Environment, Climate Change, Petroleum Resources (Upstream) and Petroleum Resources (Downstream) are the Chief Executives of some oil companies and other relevant government agencies.

Besides the NNPCL, other oil companies summoned include Chevron Nigeria Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Total Energies, Oando Oil Limited, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Seplat Energy among others.

Also, among government agencies summoned include the Nigeria Midstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, National Oil Spill Detection Response Agency and National Environmental Standards Regulations and Enforcement Agency.

Mr Gbabojor said the matter to be addressed was critical and warned that the committee would invoke appropriate sanctions if those invited fail to turn up.

He noted that despite extant laws to protect the environment of Oil Producing Communities, environmental damages in the affected Communities had been on the rise hence the need to investigate the causes.

The Chairman House Commitee on Environment stressed that efforts should be geared towards the protection of the environment to avert devastating impact as a result of the negligence by the companies or any other actors.

However, Kapital FM reports that only four out of 35 oil companies and agencies invited for the probe showed up at the commencement of the investigative hearing.

In his opening remarks the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr. Abbas, Tajudeen who said it was important to protect the environment, urged the environmental Regulatory Agencies to live up to the expectations in the protection of the nation’s environment.

The Speaker represented by the Deputy Minority Whip, Mr. George Ozodinobi, explained that non compliance to extant laws by Oil Companies had done several environmental damages to Oil Producing Communities particularly in the Niger-Delta Region.

He emphasized that the essence of the Investigative hearing was to ensure that the voices of those affected by environmental injustices are heard.

Oduyemi Odumade,Edited By Grace Namiji