Bayelsa community demands sack of environment commissioner over failure to tackle erosion challenges

The residents of Obogoro community in Yenagoa Local government area of Bayelsa state have given the state government a seven-day ultimatum to sack the commissioner for environment, Gbaranbiri Eseleman and urgently address the issue of erosion that has bedevilled the community, claimed several lives and properties in the last ten years.

The people said during a peaceful protest in Yenagoa, that they cannot fight the government but are willing to continue to go on continuous street protests, carrying their canopies, cooking pots and mattresses to sleep in front of the government house gate until a contractor mobilizes to the site to tackle the issue.

Addressing a press conference on behalf of the Obogoro community, the convener of Save Obogoro community from Erosion, comrade Ada Gwegwe, said they are tired of continuous promises and failures from both the federal and state governments.

According to him, the project should be more important to the government because several lives have been lost and hundreds of buildings have collapsed into the river.

He said “how do the governor and political appointees sleep comfortably in their houses when lives are being lost every day due to the devastating erosion.

“How do they feel when civil servants laboured for thirty to thirty-five years and saved money to build and within a twinkling of an eye the building just washed into the river or what do you say of a farmer who builds their houses through farming and all disappear just like that. Yet the government pays a deaf ear and it is quite unfortunate.

“We have lost close to two hundred houses in the last ten years and the government has not deemed it fit to organize something for the people that lost their houses to start life afresh somehow. Is like they are deceiving us every day. I don’t know whether somebody somewhere is collecting the money or what? We are tired of failed promises.”

Speaking further he said that the contractor stopped working last year in November and the government cannot give them any reasonable explanation as to why the project is still lingering.

“They have promise, promise, promise and promised. The project in Obogoro Community has become like an Indian film and we are fed up.

“The people of Obogoro Community have gone to the National Assembly about three times where the Federal Government made several promises that have not seen the light of the day. We have written several letters to NDDC, Federal Government agencies, the Bayelsa state government and the people in charge of coastal erosion.

“There is no office we have not written to, we have gone on a courtesy visit to the governor Douye Diri, the deputy governor, speaker of the state Assembly and members representing Yenagoa Constituency 1 in the state Assembly. We have visited who is who in this matter all to no avail.

“Obogoro community has been passing through coastal erosion for over a decade. It’s unfortunate that we find ourselves in a system where government don’t have value for human life.

“Year in and year out the politicians come for the campaign and make promises and they go back, at end of the day the promises are not fulfilled. It’s quite unfortunate that Obogoro which is in the heart of Yenagoa the state capital has been battling this coastal erosion for this number of years.”

In his contribution, a member of the Civil Liberty Organization in the state, David West, said that the governor, Senator Douye Diri, promises are fake and that the November 11, 2023 governorship election will determine his fate before the people.

He said people should vote against the system with anger as the system did not value life, adding that “the former governor Dickson promised and failed the people, now governor Douye is doing the same thing with fake promises.

“The commissioner for Environment should be sacked because he lacks the capability and capacity to handle that Ministry because it’s too sensitive for him. If the governor believes that his promises are not fake should swing into action and save the people of the Obogoro community.”

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