Senate wants monitoring agencies better funded - The Chairman of the Nigerian Senate Committee on Ecology and Environment, Senator Bukola Saraki, has expressed disgust over the poor funding of  agencies responsible for monitoring the activities of multi-national companies in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Saraki, a former State governor, said that the funds were grossly inadequate for them to meet the challenges of the region hence the constant oil spillage in the Niger Delta. He spoke with journalists at the Murtala Muhammed Airport late Wednesday following the recent oil spillage in Bonga in the Niger Delta region.

He explained that the Senate Committee would ensure that the global best practices in the oil region were adhered to by all oil companies operating in the area.

Saraki said: 'The National Assembly will also ensure that appropriate laws are enacted to assist the monitoring agencies and it will leave no stone unturned to see that these agencies leave up to their regulatory functions.

'With that in place, the agencies responsible for monitoring oil spillage in the region will be in a better position to carry out their regulatory functions if they are adequately funded.'

Saraki also called for intensive surveillance of the entire Niger Delta waterways to ascertain the extent and causes of oil spillage, which is doing incalculable damage to the economy and aquatic life of the region and its people.

'We are a developing country but at the same time Nigeria as a country must ensure that the right thing is done despite the mistakes that were committed in the past in the regulatory sense.'

He attributed the mistakes to operators behaving according to the environment in which they found themselves then, warning that 'It is now our responsibility to ensure that we put the right law and environment in place.'

Saraki, who indicated that there was still some oil spillage in the area, added that Shell was doing all within its power to mop up the spillage.

He attributed oil spillage around the Niger Delta to marine activities, loading and unloading of ships. ``So, we really, really need to intensify the surveillance in the Niger Delta water ways because indeed there were spillages all over and essentially these are not coming from Shell.'

'Shell is predominately involved in crude, but what we see is refining oil spills. So we need to take a thorough look at the whole of the Niger Delta stretch and see how the clean up can be done,’’ he said.

Pana 29/12/2011