<\/p>\n
Soot Outbreak in Rivers State: J4D Urges FG to Curb Menace<\/p>\n
Zainab Tanimu – Kaduna, NIGERIA<\/p>\n
A team of Journalists, whose focus is on\u00a0inspiring policy makers to giving attention to developmental issues for the overall interest of citizens has called on the Federal Government to\u00a0as a matter of urgency intervene on the calamity called, “soot\u201d; calamity that has befallen communities in Rivers State as a result of oil exploration.<\/p>\n
The group, \u2018Journalists for Development\u2019 (J4D), in a statement signed by its\u00a0National Coordinator,\u00a0Alhaji Tajudeen Tijjani and\u00a0Alex Uangbaoje,\u00a0National Publicity Secretary, urged the FG to\u00a0act fast and take\u00a0decisive action to end the menace\u00a0on the issue which they say is beyond the power of the River State Government.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, “Soot coming from the activities of the hydrocarbon industry and\u00a0many illegal refineries in the creeks has caused untold hardships on many families in the State.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this situation, many people have gone down with nasal infections and respiratory problems which have led to the death of a number of people.”<\/p>\n
They noted that the refineries set up by these illegal miners have been the source of ailment to the communities whiles the security operative agents, turned their face the other way.<\/p>\n
It is also discovered that the oil majors are more interested in the oil than in the people\u2019s well-being.<\/p>\n
They expressed concern on the health hazard facing the people as well as sympathize with the government and people of\u00a0Rivers State\u00a0over the issue.<\/p>\n
“The reported outbreak of a disease called Soot due to alleged recklessness of the security agencies to handle the proliferation of illegal refineries has caused pollution of River State environment.<\/p>\n
“Journalists for Development (J4D) therefore called on the Federal Government to wade into the calamity; and ordered the top echelon of the National Petroleum Corporation\u00a0 (NNPC), the Department of Petroleum\u00a0 \u00a0Resources (DPR) and National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), to intervene and save the lives of the people who are endangered by the activities of the oil giants.<\/p>\n
“The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on this outbreak of soot have shown that residents of Port-Harcourt are killed on daily basis without the government showing concern.<\/p>\n
“The Federal Government should not turn deaf ears to the plight of these people, who have cried out, protested without any one coming to their rescue.” They added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Soot Outbreak in Rivers State: J4D Urges FG to Curb Menace Zainab Tanimu – Kaduna, NIGERIA A team of Journalists, whose focus is on\u00a0inspiring policy makers to giving attention to developmental issues for the overall interest of citizens has called on the Federal Government to\u00a0as a matter of urgency intervene on the calamity called, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"yoast_head":"\n