Bayelsa Govt, CSOs Unite Against ‘Environmental Terrorism’

Bayelsa State government has indicated its interest to partner civil society organisations (CSOs) to intensify its advocacy on the twin issues of human and environmental rights in the Niger Delta.

The deputy governor Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, gave the hint when the leadership of the Human and Environment Development Agenda (HEDA) paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Government House, Yenagoa, at the weekend.

In a statement signed by the media aide to the deputy governor, Senator Ewhrudjakpo, he noted that the issue of environmental and human rights is occupying the front burner in the agenda of the Bayelsa State Government, adding that the Federal Government had not been fair enough to the state on the issue of protecting the Bayelsa environment.

Hesaid Bayelsa was ready to work closely with the civil society to create greater awareness on the issues.

Earlier, the chairman of the Human and Environment Development Agenda (HEDA), Mr Olanrewaju Suraju, said their visit was part of civil society engagement of states in the Niger Delta on the issues pertaining to human and environmental rights.

Suraju pointed out that the HEDA was ready to partner the Bayelsa State Government to promote advocacy on its report on environmental injustice and terrorism in Bayelsa and the entire Niger Delta region.

He maintained that if other states in the Niger Delta had done what Bayelsa had done, more global attention would have been given to the problem of environmental injustice facing the region.

The HEDA team also include the director of Corner House, United Kingdom, Mr Nicholas Hildyard, and the legal advisor, Ms Cecilia Ogwuche.

In another development, the Bayelsa State governor, Senator Douye Diri, has called for the recruitment of more indigenes  of the state into the Federal Fire Service to meet the right quota of employment allocated to the state.

He made the call at the weekend while commissioning a rapid response fire-fighting truck deployed to the state command of the Federal Fire Service, at the Government House in Yenagoa.

The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Senator Ewhrudjakpo, noted with displeasure that the state was being shortchanged in several federal agencies where the quota system is used as a criterion for employment.

While thanking the controller-general of the Federal Fire Service for deploying the ultramodern fire-fighting equipment to the state, he urged the Service to make deliberate efforts to employ Bayelsans to fill the quota meant for the state for the sake of fairness and equity.

The Bayelsa helmsman also called on the state command of the Federal Fire Service to kick start a fire safety awareness programme on radio to enlighten the people on how to prevent fire incidents and measures to take in the event of any outbreak.

Governor Diri, who observed that the Slim-built Anti-fire Truck would enhance firefighting in the state, equally urged the Fire Service to take quick steps to deploy water craft fire-fighting equipment in the riverine communities to mitigate fire outbreaks, which he lamented, claimed a few lives this year.

In his presentation, the state controller of the Federal Fire Service, ACF Amos Diton, disclosed that Bayelsa was the only state in the entire South-South and South-East that has been allocated with the rapid response firefighting truck.

Amos, who thanked the state government for always lending support to the Federal Fire Service in the state, appealed to the governor to provide the state command with a piece of land to build a functional operational office.