Surv. Furoebi Sheba Akene, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of CEPAD, has urged institutions involved in amending the constitution to prioritize quick resolutions for oil spillage cases in Nigeria.
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In a viral video, he highlighted the challenges faced by communities affected by oil operations in the Niger Delta and the need for justice to be served promptly.
Akene who is also a Fellow of Nigerian Environmental Society, raised concerns about the lack of accountability in the oil industry and the delays faced in legal proceedings related to environmental damage. He emphasized the importance of amending laws to ensure that oil spill cases are concluded within one year of filing, in order to provide timely justice to affected communities.
“The regulatory agencies are supposed to be taking inventory of these facilities and their details. When were they installed? When was the last replacement? When was the last renewal of the leased land mass and all that, they’ve refused to do that”.
“And when there’s spill, there’s so much connivance between the regulatory agencies like NOSDRA (National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency) and others with the oil companies, such to the extent that many at times they’ll go on joint investigation visits without even involving the State Ministry of Environment”.
“After the whole spill, even the ones that are so clear that they cannot describe them as sabotage, they’ll not do proper clean up. They’ll bring some locals that do not know what is called clean up, and remediation is zero because they don’t even do what is called Environmental Sensitivity Index Mapping, updated ones, to know what reagents and what type of clean up they require to clean up the place”, he said.
Surv. Furoebi Sheba Akene criticized the tactics used by some lawyers to deliberately prolong court cases, leading to unnecessary adjournments and delays in delivering justice.
“When the people engage the services of professionals – Surveyors, Estate Surveyors and Valuerers, Environmental Scientists and Lawyers to institute cases against them on the court of law, they have the money to pay even the highest Calibre of lawyers in this country. They would brief them. And the brief is that “go and frustrate the court, delay the time of the court”. And that is why the cases linger on for decades”
“How can you institute a case and it will take on four decades. After all, the same law people told us that justice delayed is justice denied. There are cases where the initial initiators of the litigations are dead. In that case, justice is absolutely denied”, he stated.
Akene called on the National Assembly, the National Judicial Council, and other relevant authorities to take action and reform laws to expedite the resolution of oil spill cases and prevent further injustice and frustration among affected communities.
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