The Federal Government has been urged to urgently declare ecological emergency in the Niger Delta to address the decades of ecological disaster in the region.

Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN who made the call in a statement made available to INFO DAILY electronically on Tuesday, further called on relevant agencies of the Federal Government especially NOSDRA to immediately investigate an alleged toxic waste dump site by Shell recently uncovered by ERA/FoEN in Kdere, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State so as to ascertain the level of toxicity and harm to the people, environment, livelihoods and provide appropriate remediation.

The toxic waste dump site was reportedly uncovered by a team of ERA/FoEN Environmental Field Monitors who reportedly visited the Lot 13 and Lot 14 on September 28, 2021 wherein they unearthed Shell’s toxic waste dump site in Kdere community.

According to the statement, some workers of Centennial Development and Investment Limited, the contractor assigned to cleanup and remediate Lot 13, phase 1 batch 1 of the HYPREP delineated cleanup sites had also complained of a powerful stench oozing from the Lot.

The statement disclosed that ERA/FoEN field monitors noticed coloured creamy substances in the soil within the excavated pit.

It further stated that an environmental scientist in the team disclosed that the stench and the colour of the groundwater in the pit are telltale signs that the site could be a toxic waste dump site.

“The excavated area has been cordoned off but despite the possible health and safety implications of working in such deleterious environment as work was still ongoing at the different sections of the site and many of the workers did not have the benefit of protective face masks or other protective gear needed for such harmful site work.

“No one knows when the toxic substance excavated by this cleanup contractor was buried there but fingers are pointing inexorably to shell as the architect of the heinous crime,” the statement stated.

Lamenting the situation, Uyi Ojo condemned Shell’s frequent acts of secret cocktails of toxic chemicals with repugnant smell dumped in Ogoni.

He described the act as a major source of soil contamination and water pollution with serious health hazards, adding that “community folks die off in instalments owing to no fault of theirs but the greed and plunder of an oil company that will not play to the rules but has perfected the art of repeatedly violating the people of Ogoniland and their environment.”

He continues, “What is playing out in the Ogoniland clean up in the uncovering of secret toxic waste dump sites is the lack of transparency and accountability of oil transnational companies’ faulty clean up operations throughout the Niger Delta that have destroyed the environment, reduced livelihoods potential and impoverishment of the people.”

Also airing his view in the statement, Mike Karikpo, Programmes Director, (ERA/FoEN) stated that, “proper evacuation of the hidden cargo of toxic materials from Lot 13 should be conducted by experts and in a transparent manner and involving the relevant government agencies, impacted communities and civil society that are interested in tracking the movement of this likely cargo of death.”

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The statement therefore called for the immediate removal of Shell and Prof. Philip Shekwolo from the HYPREP structures and cleanup process, noting that “Shell and its former staff neither have the temperament nor the capacity to act with integrity and sincerity of purpose when it concerns Ogoni environment and the entire Niger Delta.”

The environmental organistion recall in the statement that in 2018, similar substances with heavily offensive odours were discovered at oil well No. 39 in Kdere community, and subsequent laboratory analysis confirmed that the substances were toxic wastes buried there by Shell.

It stated that oil well 39 where the toxic substances were removed in 2018 by Shell was neither cleaned up and compensation paid to persons from the community who suffered any effects on their crop farming, nor their health status medically assessed.