The Founder and President General of Akwa Ibom Oil Producing Community Development Network (AKIPCON), Apostle Ufot Phenson has raised the alarm on ecosystem destruction by the extractive industry in Akwa Ibom and the likelihood of fish scarcity.
Apostle Phenson said that the incessant oil spills with attendant contamination of water bodies and gas flares that scare wild life and rain down as acids continue to rob the locals of livelihoods and force many to abandon fishing and farming.
Ufot warned that the unchecked pollutions including the most recent in Ibeno Local government area of the state would worsen the food crisis that locals are already facing and force many into crime.
He made the disclosure at the public presentation of a book he wrote titled State Security Management, Hydrocarbon Pollution, Environment and Implications on Human Rights in Nigeria in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.
The event had civil society activists, the media, traditional rulers and members of AKIPCON from the 31 local.government area of the state, and researchers.
Chairman of the occasion, Barrister Chima Williams said that the book is timely and captures in clear and understandable language the situation in most communities in the Niger Delta where oil is mined.
Williams who is executive director of Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN) maintained that the insecurity in the Niger Delta is fueled by the pollutions and neglect of the host communities and their frustrations as producers of the golden egg but have nothing to show for it
The EDEN executive director opined that the solution to the environment crisis in Akwa Ibom, like much of the Niger Delta must start with a comprehensive environmental audit to determine the amount of destruction of the ecosystem to be able to come up with holistic solutions.
He described the author of the book as eminently qualified to x-ray the issues bedeviling the Niger Delta oil belt and proffer solutions as one who has traversed the public service and now engaging with the impacted peoples at the grassroots.
He used the opportunity to also disclose that EDEN will work with AKIPCON to continue to document oil impacts and challenge the relevant state institutions to take action to remediate the environment and hold it’s destructors to account
