The Presidency, on Monday, accused the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) of getting it all wrong over the gas explosion that took place in the Koluama area of Bayelsa state and its response towards the residents and an arrangement for possible compensation.
A statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Dr Reuben Abati, issued in Abuja, said the allegation made by the national publicity secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to the effect that President Goodluck Jonathan’s lack of proper response to the disaster had deepened the pains of the residents, was far from the truth.
According to the presidential spokesman, “having visited the Koluama community in Bayelsa State in company with the president, I can confidently assert that nothing could be further from the truth than the statement by the ACN publicity secretary.”
He pointed out that the gas explosion incident at the Chevron platform in Koluama occurred at the height of the fuel subsidy crisis, adding that the Federal Government gave priority attention to the matter by setting the necessary machinery in motion to manage the disaster.
Abati, in the statement, said the president promptly dispatched the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madu-ekwe, to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment, to determine its extent and what needed to be done to relieve the people of the community and ensure that the threat to their lives and livelihood was contained.
The presidential spokesman added that the president personally visited Koluama community on February 27 to, among other things, empathise with the community and confirm the requirements for addressing the damage done.
On his entourage during the visit, according to the statement, were the Ministers of Petroleum Resources, Environment and the Niger Delta, the Directors-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), as well as top officials of the Bayelsa State government.
According to the statement, “after the president’s visit, the Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Matters, Mr Kingsley Kuku, visited the island on March 6, on the direct orders of President Jonathan to commence skills acquisition pro-gramme for youths and women in the affected communities. The president further directed the Ministry of Environment to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in collaboration with Chevron.”
Abati, therefore, noted that “it is not true that the Federal Government is treating Chevron with kid gloves,” adding that President Jonathan had been involved with the Koluama communities since his days as the deputy governor and governor of Bayelsa State.
“It is also not true that all the president did was to praise the people for their peaceful reaction to the disaster that has befallen them,” as claimed by Alhaji Mohammed. Alhaji Mohammed should resist the temptation to weep more than the bereaved.
“I would like to remind him that accidents involving oil spills and fires and other environmental disasters arising from the oil industry are complicated and are not matters that you rush over.
“In these matters, inordinate haste could amount to waste,” the statement read.
He reminded the ACN that it took about 85 days to stop the release of crude oil after the April 2010 British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the United States, saying that “even till today, British Petroleum and the US government are still not done working out the details of compensation to be paid to the victims.
