Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, on Monday joined former President Goodluck Jonathan and other leaders to reflect on the costs and benefits of oil exploration in the Niger Delta, calling on stakeholders to chart a better future for the region.
The leaders spoke at the opening of the 2026 Sweet Crude Dialogue held at the Conference Centre of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board Towers in Yenagoa.
The Sweet Crude Dialogue, themed “Through the Python’s Eye: 70 Years of Oil and Gas Production in Nigeria,” brought together industry players, academics and top government functionaries.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Deputy Governor, Mr Doubara Atasi, said the chief host, Diri, represented by his deputy, Dr Peter Akpe, decried the level of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta and called on well-meaning organisations to work towards achieving justice for the region.
Quoting the report of the defunct Archbishop John Sentamu-led Bayelsa State Oil and Environment Commission, the governor said about 13 million barrels of crude were spilt in the region between 1958, when Nigeria made its first shipment of crude, and 2010.
Describing the commission’s findings as “sobering,” he said the chairman described what had happened to the state as “nothing short of an environmental genocide.”
The governor therefore urged De Mangrove Conversations and other environmental advocacy groups to collaborate with the government to ensure the implementation of the commission’s recommendations.
He said, “The State Government has embraced the Commission’s findings, and the Governor has asked me to reaffirm, in the clearest terms, this administration’s commitment to environmental justice, the remediation of our lands and…
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