Special Field Report on Total’s Pollutions in Egiland

October 2014

Table of contents

Introduction 3

Context 3

Testimonies 4

Observations 12

Conclusions and demands 12

Photos of the environment 13

Special report edited after ERA/FoEN last field visit in October 2014.

Location: Egiland,Ogba kingdom of Ogba/Egbema Ndoni Local Government Area, Rivers State

Report by: Alagoa Morris & Akpotu Ziworitin (Environmental Rights Action / Friends of the EarthNigeria (ERA/FoEN)

Cover image: © ERA / Les Amis de la Terre Nigeria – Eruption site number 14, polluted lands afterIbewa accident in 2012

This report has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The content of this report isthe sole responsibility of Les Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth France) and ERA (Friends of the EarthNigeria), and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.

IntroductionTotal Oil company operating in Nigeria’s Niger Delta has been nominated for the 2014 PinocchioAward1 for worst energy company is a welcomed development. It shows that the company cannotescape from the several decades of environmental devastation and relentless pillaging ofcommunity natural resources in the Niger Delta and Egi communities.

Since 2012 the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria [ERA/FoEN] visitedseveral times some communities in Egi clan up till October 2014. The visits were in connection withTotal activities in Egi and the aftermath of its operational failure and multiple gas eruptions whichoccurred in April 2012. There has also been a nagging problem of landgrabbing by Total for theirgas plant expansion project in the communities.

These visits were conducted by ERA/FoEN Field Monitors, environmental/human rights groups,journalists and Nigeria’s Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology led by the Chair of theCommittee, Senator Bukola Saraki. While the field monitors documented the atrocities of Total,community members testified on the pains and misery caused by the company’s failed facility andby the gas expansion project.

This special report presents testimonies about the environmental, and social dislocation andlivelihoods destruction in the host communities. In all there is an overwhelming substantial evidenceto conclude that Total is one of the worst energy companies operating in Nigeria and hugelydeserves the unenviable Pinocchio award nomination.

ContextThe people of Egi clan are mostly farmers unlike the Ogoni and Ijaws that are more situated in theriverine areas. Besides farming, they also engage in palm cutting and hunting activities. Asideenvironmentally related concerns of the people, in terms of their health and livelihood, complaintsare rife that Total/Elf’s operation has denied them of their farmlands, a development best describedas land grab. ERA/FoEN was reliably informed that when Total/Elf first entered Egiland in 1962 foroil exploration and exploitation in 1964 it went by the name SAFRAPH but later metamorphosed intoTotal/Elf and now Total E/P.

The need to revisit some of the communities impacted by the 2012 multiple gas eruptions becamenecessary to ascertain the situation of the environment and what the company must have done toalleviate the plight of victims, especially in terms of clean-up, compensation and land grab relatedcomplaints.

During this visit, ERA/FoEN field monitors met with community members and were led to the 2012gas eruption sites. Some stakeholders gave testimonies of what they knew and observationsaround the subject matter. ERA/FoEN also met with Rev. Emmanuel Zachariah and Comrade CheIbegura, two figures serving as rallying point of the victims. A former Secretary of the Egi People’sAssembly also testified on related issues. Unemployment, land grad, loss of livelihood, divide andrule and use of force against the people are some of the areas those who spoke with ERA/FoENdwelt on.

1 www.prix-pinocchio.org/en/nomines.php#total3

TestimoniesMadam Teresa Okadike [52 Years old mother of seven children], from Obite community, Egiland“In our community, individual families own landand we have several families in Obite. SinceTotal/Elf came to take over our land for its gasplant, we have been deprived of not only ourland but of job opportunities. This has beenmade worse by the activities of the EgiPeople’s Assembly.

We also suffer from different ailments and oursource of drinking has been polluted. Ourchildren easily fall sick and we havechildren who have graduated from theUniversities but have remained jobless. Theheads of our families who represent us arelandlords are also disregarded unless youbelong to those groups who are pocketingmoney meant for us. Total recognizes anddeals with only those groups they feelcomfortable with. We, as women and widowsare helpless; including children whose fathershave died.

Total has occupied our land and when weinvited them to come and discuss the issuewith us they refused. Rather than discuss withthe real landlords, Total preferred talking withthe Egi People’s Assembly [EPA] and, if youtalk your life is in danger; you might be killed. Ifyou criticize the EPA they either seek to bribeyou and get you over to their side as a spy inthe communities or they kill you. So, we aresuffering and searching for help. We aresearching for who will bring us out of the pit wefind ourselves now. All of us who are victimsfrom Obite, Ogbogu, Akabuka, Egita, Ede,Obubrun, Obagi, whose land Total has sotaken and we are suffering. The companyhas denied us of our farmlands. Before youfarm now you may need to go to othercommunities like Okposi and Obigwe to buy apiece of land to farm. And if you don’t have the

money how can you buy the land? Withoutmoney, how can you feed your family when wehave the resources to take care of ourselveshere?

I have personal experiences. Four of mychildren and my husband are unemployed rightnow. Besides, we were asked to leave our mudhouse where we were living before they cameand built this gas plant at Obite. Where the gasflare stark was set up was where we oncelived, our own land. It is not as if part of ourfamily land was taken by Total. Our entire landwas taken without actually paying for theland so taken. What I know is that for anybodyto say he/she wants to buy your land, the buyerhas to approach the owner and express thedesire to buy and if both of them agrees, thenmoney will exchange hands. But in our case,there was nothing like that between Total/Elfand us, no such agreements between Totaland owners of the land.

On a personal level, I have not done anything,to avoid unpleasant consequences. But I havesince identified myself with the group calledEgiland Energy Producing Host LandlordsAssociation of Nigeria, under the leadership ofRev. Emmanuel Zachariah with a view topursue the matter. We embarked on a protestin 2006 at the gas plant. But even at that, theEPA has continued to be a stumbling block onour part, preventing us from achieving our goal.During that peaceful protest, Total releasedtheir thugs, the soldiers and police and theyused Teargas on us. They chased us awaywith force. Many of the protesters receivedbeating and were injured too. Some elderlyones who went on that protest with us are nomore alive; they have died….”

Ajie Jerusalem [37 year-old young man], from Egita community “I am the Secretary to the Egiland Energy Producing Host Landlords Association, Nigeria;

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a registered organization. The issue of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta isnot a new story. We all know it and it has been with us for a long time. We are also a marginalized people; we don’t get what we ought to get. The resources God has alreadygiven to us, I don’t know whether it is a

curse now. By right it ought not to be a curse. God gave us the resources to enable the people around the environment to live a good life. But the reverse is now the case. If you are not strong or belong to any influential organization nothing will come to you.

I grew up to know that Total hasmarginalized my community for a very longtime. They came up with this policy that if theirpipeline does not pass through your land orthere is no oil will in your land nothing concernsyou with them. It was so until the 2012 incident.When we investigated the matter wediscovered that Total was tapping the gas fromEbewa Cluster. They were there tapping thegas from our land through horizontal drillingtechnique unknown to us. In fact more thanfifty per cent of the area where the multiple gaseruptions occurred belongs to my family; UmuAjie family in Egita community. We thenrealized that they have been tapping thisresource in our land for more than forty yearsunknown to us.

It was after we had concluded ourinvestigations that they came in their usual wayto say, let us settle. They first came with reliefmaterials which included half bag of rice andvegetable oil. This they brought twice. Thatwas while the gas eruptions were still on and,after those times we did not see themanymore. The company even promised tolocate a cottage hospital in our place followingthe gas eruptions because the gas wasdangerous to health. After those relief materialsthey disappeared.

Although there has been no clean-up sincewhen the incident occurred, they havetampered with compensation. Actually whatthey intend to give us wasn’t what wasreleased. They have not paid uscompensation per se, but they paid ussome money and tagged it‘Inconveniences’. I didn’t come with the

document, which I would have showed you.So, they did not clearly say it wascompensation and they did the same to all theimpacted communities.”

About Total’s operations

“Land is not communally owned in my place. Itis owned by different families. My personalexperience is that, after we discovered howTotal was cheating us I consulted a lawyer andhe served Total a letter. Total failed to respondto that letter and till date, they have not replied.

I also discovered after the 2012 incident thatthere was this organization [which I am nowthe Secretary] which is I was convinced couldgenuinely fight for environmental justice and soI aligned myself with it to fight for our rights. Wethen went ahead to register the organization tomake it corporate. By right as landlords wedon’t even need to register such; but we did tobe on the safer side. After getting ourorganization registered we have written Totalseveral letters for the company to havedialogue with us on pending issues. Sadly, allour efforts proved abortive. Till now they havenot responded to us after all we have done.”

About the Egi People’s Assembly (EPA)

“The EPA is a corporate body and they nowclaim they are the landlord of Egi which, theyare not. Anything that would come to Egi, theywould want it to pass through them before theoriginal landlords which, by right are notsupposed to be.”

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Chief Emmanuel Livinda Ukpe [57 years of age and father of 11 children], mouth piece of Ogbogu community“Since the 1960s when Total came to our landthey have been changing their name. Theycame first as Safraph. Later they changed thename to Elf Petroleum and to Total E/P. Nowthey are identified as Total E/P. While thecompany has continued to change its name,they refused to change our names made inerror. The operations of Total in our land hascaused so many dispute between neighbouringcommunities and within communities.

Like my house or land where OB 18/Ebewa 1is located at my backyard, but they named itEbewa 1. In 1994 when they came here to drillthe gas [because that location is a gaslocation] the drilling contractor took their drillingmaterials to Ebewa community. Rather thannaming the facility after ourcommunity,Ogbogu; they named it Ebewa tocause confusion. From here to Ebewa is aboutfive kilometers. Some of our well headlocations the company names them after Obagior Ebewa; even the Clusters and named justlike that.

All these have not gone down well with us,causing problems amongst us. We have beendemanding for change of name to take care ofwhat we considered an error, but Total has thusrefused. We have documents of MemorandumOf Understanding [MOU] reached between ourcommunity, government and Total which statesthat after a given period of time they will effectthe change of name. But instead of executingthe MOU, Total aligned with politicians [theEPA] and denied us what we requested for.

When we raise the issues they will take usto the police. Again, Total entered andsurveyed our land without our consent. Weresisted by dragging them to the Ministry ofEnvironment and for which, the officials of theMinistry said what Total has done was strange;that it has never happened anywhere in theworld. The then Commissioner of Environmentsaid so. The Commissioner said you cannotenter to survey or acquire somebody’s landwithout the knowledge of the owner.

That was in 2008. Total refused to honour theinvitation of the Ministry of Environment; asthey were advised by the politicians backingthem. Through the use of military to intimidateus, Total forcefully continued to survey our landand later fenced it. We don’t have access tothe land anymore.”

About the compensation for the landacquired

“They only paid for the crops we had on theland, nothing more. That is why we havewritten them to come into an agreement withus on the subject matter. But they refused,backed by members of the EPA.”

About the environmental impact ofTotal’s operations

“If not for the rain now; as we go out I wouldhave taken you to see the condition of ourcocoyam [cocoindia]. This is the season ourwomen used to harvest them and bring to themarket in large quantity. As farmers; that is oneof the crops we really depended on. But rightnow you cannot find them in the marketbecause the crop is going into extinctiondue to the gas eruption in our environmentcaused by Total.”

About their relationships with Total

“We have been calling them to come anddiscuss with us. Some human rightsorganizations have been coming and trying toassist us. We went to Benin too to meet withthe group because we are a peace lovingcommunity. We don’t want problem. When weorganized a peaceful protest they used theirthugs to attack us and destroy our canopies.

They confiscated the camera/handset of ourchairman [referring to Rev. EmmanuelZachariah, who is chairman of the EgilandEnergy Producing Host Landlords Association,Nigeria]. That was in 2006 and, all of these we

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did just to ensure that we and Total come to aRound Table and talk about our problem.”

About the Egi People’s Assembly

“The Egi People’s Assembly is not workingfor the common interest of our people. Theyare the politicians and as such they are notworking for the interest of the communities.

For instance, if you go to Port Harcourt you willsee a house built by Ogbako Ikwerre, thesocio-cultural group representing the Ikwerrepeople. We are not from Ikwerre. So, how canour so-called Egi People’s Assembly have sucha house in Port Harcourt and say it is for us? Ifyou go to Nzimiro in Port Harcourt there is onehouse the EPA members bought and said it isfor Egi people. How can an old man who hasproblem with Total have money and strength tomove to Port Harcourt? They call the HouseEgi Embassy. That is what I saw written on thehouse. They used the Egi development moneyto buy the house. They are not developing us.They share money belonging to Egi peopleamongst themselves and, you become theirenemy if you say you are not part of thesharing.

There is an Estate they say they aredeveloping for Egi people since 2007; but it isyet to be completed. If you go to the site of theestate the place is bushy. EPA has been eatingour money. We have several town halls inEgiland and when we suggested that ourmoney should be used on something to willbring revenue, the EPA refused. They have

continued to build town halls. What are wedoing with all these halls?

When you talk they come after you. Theyarrested and took three of ourleaders/members to Abuja and detained them,this year [2014]. It all happened because ofdisagreement on projects to be sited.

We are already in court with them, two cases atthe Federal High Court with the EPA. One iscoming up for hearing on the 24th of this month,October, 2014. We also have a case with themat Akabuka Customary Court and one atOmoku High Court; bringing all to a total of fourcases with the EPA in court right now.

We said they should use that money judiciouslyand for the benefit of all, because that moneyis meant for all sons and daughters of Egiland,even children born today. That money is part ofMOU reached with Total/Elf which is paidannually for community development.

That issue is causing serious problems. Justlast month some persons were killed. Theyouths engaged themselves in shooting,kidnapping and all of that. Two persons werekilled at Egita and so many were killed atObagi. In Ogbogu here, the younger brother ofour chairman was also killed. Just in one nighteighteen persons were killed. It became soserious that the EPA went on air [on radio] andthe government intervened. Some personswere arrested.

If you don’t belong to their clique [of the EPA],they will relegate you to the background,marginalize you. Even the traditional rulers aresidelined by the EPA because they want everyperson to bow to them…”

Comrade Che Igbegura “The exploration and exploitation activitiesof oil multinationals do not take intoconsideration the interests of the locals. Ifthey did, they would have carried the peoplealong in such a manner that, even though theiroperations harm the environment; they wouldhave collectively strategized on best ways ofameliorating or minimizing the impacts. Thepurpose of these oil companies is acquiringmaximum profit. It is for the benefit of the

imperial masters, to take the wealth from hereand go back to develop their infrastructuralneeds back in their home countries.

While the culpability of our own government isthere, we also recognize the fact that oil politicsis as dangerous as death. When these oilcompanies come to operate in anenvironment and they identify those withinthe particular environment they could easily

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work with; they jointly work against thecommon interest of the people and foistpoverty instead.

When you talk about organizing the people,nature had first organized the people by theircommunities. That is the first principle oforganization. People cluster together, theythink together, have same tradition and culturepursuit to their existence. But when theexternal forces comes into that environment, toacquire the resources in the environment; theystart to divide them. That is the trick. Ourthoughts are controlled by the oil companies,whether we like it or now.

And, this is due to one common factor, whopays the piper dictates the tune; he whocontrols the resources of society andbecomes the most powerful element,controls your happiness and ordinances ofyour entire life. They bring the laws are weare just yes men.

So, when you talk about organization, they willnot allow the indigenes to establish an honestleadership. And, it is not easy to resist bribe.When they create the situation for physical andfinancial poverty, that time they make thepeople to become commodities themselveswhich they can buy. They buy the humanbeings here like commodities. In thisconnection, they also strive to ensure that thehonest leaders are denied the physical andfinancial wherewithal to confront them.”

About the April, 2012 gas eruptions

“The extractive industry now depends onhigher technology and less use of labour. Thatis what happened in 2012 when Total wasapplying horizontal drilling techniques and

there was a clash under the ground. Sadly.Total has not paid Egi people what could beconsidered commensurate with the damagewrought by that incident. What they did waspay stipend to some Egita people.”

About the Egi People’s Assembly

“They shouldn’t have been representing theinterest of Total. What they also do is go to thecompany and negotiate their own [EPA’s]interest; not the interest of the people. We arenot saying they don’t negotiate, they donegotiate. But if they are negotiating in theinterest of the people, the first thing they needto ascertain is the extent of damage done tothe environment, and the land taken away fromthe people by Total/Elf because land is thesource of existence of all the world’saborigines.

All development about human society is fromthe land. There is no other way you candevelop without the land.

They say they want to build factories, but innature there is nothing like unemployment;once the land is there, you are employed.Whether you want to build factories, you stillneed the land.

In this connection, it is not the foreigners thatare our problem, but our own people. Theyshouldn’t have been selling the land in the firstplace. Land is not for sell, human beings areattached to the land. What our people shouldhave done is using our land as our owncollateral, investment and share in thebusiness. No reasonable government willencourage her people to sell their land toforeign companies…”

Precious A.C. UcheIndigene of Obite“This sign post you see was fixed here by Totalin April, 2012 during the multiple gas eruptions.It is obvious that Total has been treating usunfairly; without regard for our existence.Since they took away our land under pretext

what we got in return is vicious attack onour livelihood and degrading abuse on ourenvironment that undermines our existencehere on earth.

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I cannot go to France and mount a sign postupon their land restricting them from havingaccess into their land. So, it is very, verywrong. Since Total/Elf took our land for their oiland gas related, we have not benefited fromthem.

Now, see the big sign post they mounted onour land, it is of no value to us and, this is thekind of degrading abuse we have been

receiving from them. So, look at what is writtenon the signpost that they mounted upon ourland during the gas eruptions. Now they wrote‘Do Not Approach’. See how Total is nowrestricting me, the landlord that I should notapproach my land. And, I am here standingtoday , the 6th day of October, 2014 to tell youabout the negative things Total/Elf has beendoing to us; as a landlord.”

Barrister V.C. UmesiPast Secretary of Egi People’s Assembly“…there were several youth and womenorganizations within Egiland which served aspressure group. And, when you look at themcritically, you hardly know where theybelonged. That gave the companies theadvantage to take advantage of the people.

The Egi People’s Assembly came intoexistence with a view to bridge the gaps.However, people who are not close enoughmay not know some of the challenges the EgiPeople’s Assembly [EPA] passes through.

Actually we operated mostly based onMemorandum Of Understanding [MOU] withTotal. Unfortunately, these MOUs are often notimplemented or adhered to the letter by thecompany. For instance, Total said the EPA aspartners. But, I observed once that there wasfraud in the partnership. And I can standanywhere to defend this. Why I saw thepartnership as a fraud is that, when it comes tosomething that is pressing you; you look for apartner to help you out of the problem. Butwhen the other partner is pressed and theylook for you; you bring company policy. In atrue partnership, when I am in trouble youcome to assist me and when you are, I do thesame. hat is my little understanding withpartnership.

Another example is that, Egi indigenes havetwelve chances to be employed. But they arenot employed. There are so many MOUs thathave been carried over; the unimplementedaspects. I don’t exaggerate, I say what I know.And, like I said, those twelve chances meantfor Egi indigenes are still pending. I asked, ifthose persons have been employed since, howmuch would they have earned over the periodof this denial? Calculate it now and see howmuch we have lost to you people [Total/Elf], fornot employing our people that you have agreedto employ.

You are presenting company policy, yet you areemploying Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa [Nigerians fromother regions] almost every day. EveryEngineer from Egi is tagged; Egi Engineer. Heis not an Engineer, but Egi Engineer.

I made it clear in a recent conference ofLawyers I attended in Abuja that, gas flaringhas continued in the Niger Delta and the datefor stopping it has also continued to be shifted.The Federal Government is collecting fines onbehalf of the real victims of gas flaring. Rightnow we don’t drink rain water in our communitydue to the pollution caused by gas flaring. Ourcorrugated roofing sheets don’t last anymore,also due to gas flare. These are things wesuffer because of the oil industry operationswithin our environment.

I told Total, you people are paying people toprotect your interest, but I tell you, evil cannotlast forever. I say, let me give you example;during the era of militancy in the Niger Delta,none of your facilities was touched. SeeChevron, Mobil , Agip, Shell… as for Shell,Ogoni is no-go area. But we, Egi peopleprotected you. What have you done in return?paying us with hate?

I asked them if Total is no longer a company ofrecords; whether they don’t know that theywere owing us in terms of employmentchances. Employ our people. The MoU says

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Egi people have 100 per cent chances forlabour, Egi have 60 per cent semi-skilledlabour and Egi people have 40 per cent skilledlabour. Now, if you add 40, 60 and 100 youhave 200 per cent. That is the upgrade,because they upgraded.

If that is the situation, I asked, how manyworkers are now engaged for the upgrade? Itold them that in my own case I don’t knowmathematics but let us convert the percentageinto human beings and see how many of ourpeople have been employed according to theMoU. They shouted and called me names thatI have started. They say Secretary is a badperson. I insisted that we need to know exactlyhow many of our people will be employed inline with the MoU so that we can distribute thechances among the communities according toour quota.

When I raised the issue of the EIA on theupgrade, the social impact of the upgradebecause workers who are not from here maycome with their own cultural background too.They said I shouldn’t worry because there is aconsultant on EIA.

Recently you heard about shooting and killings.These are all part of the problem. Employmentissues were part of the violence. Even thosenot employed, they do not understand whythey could not be employed. Information andproper dissemination is important. If people areaware that, there are employment chances andthat after the turn of their friend or brother it willget to their turn, they will wait patiently for theirown turn because the upgrade is meant for fiveyears. Those waiting will do so with hope thattheir turn is coming. But, hopelessness broughtabout violence in the land.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the gods of Egiheard the cries of the people and embarrassedTotal/Elf. Total/Elf was preparing to celebratethe company’s 50th year in Egiland in 2012when the gas eruptions happened in April ofthe same year. They had prepared to celebratetheir victory over Egi. I visited the eruption sitesmyself and I saw with my eyes. When the gas

eruptions occurred, Total panicked seriously.The people who were planning to celebrate, uptill today they are still surprised, that they havenever seen a people like us.

They later started going about with reliefmaterials. Incidentally, that same year the greatfloods came. I told my president we shouldstay off the issue relating to the relief materialsand he agreed. We suggested that theimpacted communities should go into MOUwith Total. It is on record. For relief material Iknow it was delivered to the communities;though I don’t know whether it wascommensurate with what the situationdemanded.

As a result of the gas eruptions too, an MOU of$ 30 million was reached with Total/Elf, whatthe company would do for Egi. And right now, Iam aware that the Egita community has suedTotal/Elf at the High Court in Port Harcourt. Ithink last week they were in Court. As directedby the EPA, Egita community and familiesimpacted by the gas eruptions ought to hadgone into MOU with Total before the EPA andTotal had theirs [of $30 million]. But due tointernal conflict, Egita didn’t go for the MOUwith Total/Elf. It was this year the EPA signedthe $30million MOU with Total/Elf, because wewaited for Egita to conclude theirs first, butthey delayed and the EPA went ahead.

As to whether the EPA had conflict with anyother organization or the Egi people, I can onlysay; it is natural that people grumble. May bethe way we were handling the affairs of theclan, some people might have wanted it in highpedestal.

The EPA is not managing the entire Egi affairsalone. We have the Egi Youth Federation andagain, MOU is divided into two. There is that ofEgi and also that of Oil and gas. I am willing torelease some of the MOUs and relateddocuments to you once I lay my hands onthem; I have some of them. And, like I said,there has never been any open confrontationwith any other organization in Egiland, to thebest of my knowledge.”

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Rev. Emmanuel Zachariah Chairman of Egiland Energy Producing Host Landlords Association“I am aware that this your visit is to confirm ifwhat we are saying about our relationship withTotal/Elf are true, especially as it relates to theissue of the April, 2012 gas blowouts andlingering land grab by the company.

I say so because stories may be going roundthat they might have done the needful. But Iam delighted that you have personally visitedthe site again and, you saw that nothing hasbeen done. The whole place is bushy and thesignposts placed there by Total in 2012 are stillthere at the impacted sites; giving warning tothe community.

We really appreciate your visit and what yourorganization is doing to support our course.After your visits during the 2012 incidents wethought you have forgotten us. This visit hasrekindled hope that we are not alone. You havewitnessed the wind of poverty in the land. Allthe places you visited nobody said anythingpositive about Total/Elf because of how the so-called Egi People’s Assembly has intruded intomatters which ordinarily they ought not to.

The EPA now stands as an edge between Totaland these poor, oppressed people. If would bereally great if we have the opportunity to be inFrance and tell the world about our plight.

We are aware that some persons from Egilandhave appeared in France sometime ago andclaim they owned Egiland which was fraud.And that is why we are pursuing this cause,that whatever is due the real landlords shouldget to them. What we actually need now is forTotal/Elf to come to the negotiation table withthose whose land they have taken by force andreach agreements on the way forward.”

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ObservationsMore persons were willing to speak to ERA/FoEN on the subject relating to the field trip. This reportdid not capture five other testimonies.

They include that of Pastor Christian Uchendu of Obite community, who said even though hisbuilding was about four meters to Total/Elf’s fence and his family suffered the impacts of the April,2012 gas eruption he was given no compensation till date.

We learnt from Uchendu that he was ordered not to lit any fire or cook in his house all through theperiod and his source of water was polluted. Some of his neighbours received some money fromTotal/Elf. The Oldest man in Obite community also testified of how life was before Total/Elf came totheir land and how it used to be before the company later denied them of their farmlands andresultant hardship faced by the people.

Another person who confirmed what others said about the land grab of Total/Elf and the attitude ofthe EPA was the paramount Ruler of Obagi, His Royal Highness, Eze Charles S. Okikieh in hishome.

Another chief from Obite and a young man from Ogbogu name Ahiamadu Kingsley [who is anenvironmentalist and spoke on the gas impacts on human beings] also spoke to ERA/FoEN.

Conclusion and demandsGoing round the 2012 gas eruption sites, it was clear that the environment is being largely avoidedby the people; even though some cassava farms were sighted. It was observed that some of thebuildings were people lived close to the 2012 incident have been abandoned; including those thatwere being built in the environment then. During the incident, Total placed some warning signs toavoid fire outbreak and other incidents. During this visit two of the signposts were still found in theenvironment; though the writings in one had completely washed off.

Even though those who testified claimed that Total/Elf had not paid compensation for the gaseruption impacts, going by documents made available to ERA/FoEN indicating that; even thoughthe payment was made in respect of the gas eruption and tagged ‘inconvenience’; the statementcrafted in the receipt suggested that those receiving the payment have no right to engage Total/Elfon any matter relating to the issue, not even through a third party.

What still needs to be done:

• The Federal and Rivers State governments must halt Total’s unauthorised delineation of lands in the aforementioned communities which has caused strife among hitherto peaceful people. It is the statutory responsibility of the Federa l/State government to delineate lands

• Recommendations of the Senate Committee on Environment should be publicized and implemented

• Total must do a proper cleanup of the environment and compensate community people impacted by its operations

• Agreements for development projects in the aforementioned communities must be carried out in concert with the true representatives of the people and not surrogate groups funded by Total

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Pictures of the environment

State of the environment in 2012

During the visit of the Senate committee on environment in 2012

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Current state of the environment: abandoned building close to the gas eruption site

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