‘Bayelsa Suffering Environmental Genocide –Archbishop Of York’ 27 May 2019

Dr. John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, United Kingdom, and chairman of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission (BSOEC), raised the alarm on Sunday that the state was facing environmental terrorism and genocide. Sentamu said that it would be an unfair understatement for anybody to describe the magnitude of violence done to the environment due to oil spills and pollution by the international oil companies as degradation...

He lamented that the land, air and waters of Bayelsa had been destroyed because of unchecked environmental pollution, which culminated in the destruction of the people’s livelihood, and eventual death. He said that he embarked on a trip for about six hours along the state’s waterways without seeing any bird flying because of the violence done to the state’s environment. The prominent clergy man, who blamed the oil firms for not taking into cognizance the negative effects of their activities, called on the people to speak out and draw the attention of the international community to their plight.

Senatmau said, “The problem is, when you talk about environmental degradation it sounds as if it’s acceptable. In other words, it’s bad but not really too bad whereas genocide is a tough word, you are actually killing. “Do you know I went into the river for about four to six hours without seeing a single bird flying anywhere? You would have expected to see them because they should be plenty but the environment and habitat had been destroyed so the people found themselves with all kinds of diseases and suffering. “What is going on is that bio-diversity is not what it should be so we need words that actually express what the truth is.