His Royal Majesty, King Bubaraye Dakolo, Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, has called on the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to as a matter of urgency call on the international oil companies operating in the Niger Delta Region to clean up the polluted environment, even as they have moved to divested.

Speaking yesterday in Yenagoa during a multistakeholder dialogue on carbon offset organized by a group, Search for Common Ground, in partnership with Stakeholder Democracy Network and Foundation for Partnership Initiative in the Niger Delta with support from European Union, King Dakolo also advocated for the review of the educational curriculum suggesting that environment matters should be imbedded in the curriculum from primary to the university levels.

He also spoke against the indiscriminate felling of trees, maintaining that trees as a matter of fact helps to emit oxygen that we breath and takes back carbon dioxide, adding that there should be long term measures of championing the course instead of the current short term.

He said: “The Government of Nigeria should hold oil companies to come and remediate the polluted environment if they are willing just that the government has been unwilling.

“The NUPRC is the regulator of oil and gas sector. It is its business to ensure that the environment is remediated and it is not pushing that and it is not able to push that because even when there is a spillage somewhere, because NUPRC doesn’t have a boat, they don’t have a chopper.

“Like, if you want to go to Santa Barbara for inspection, it is the oil company that will give them food, send their children abroad and so when they come back, they will call it sabotage.