Delta Community wants insurance for oil damage

Communities living in the oil-producing Delta State have asked the federal government to provide them with a comprehensive insurance scheme against personal injury and damage to property following oil spills, ‘The Guardian’ reported on Wednesday.

The appeal, made by a delegation of the Ughelli community in Delta State to the state governor, noted that such an insurance policy would encourage the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries to be more cautious in their operations, the daily said.

“This is pertinent because every town in Ughelli produces large quantities of crude oil and natural gas,” the Ughelli statement said, adding that they wanted a public apology to the families of the victims of recent oil fire disasters and to all the people living in the Niger Delta for calling them criminals. They also want adequate compensation paid to the families of those who died in fires as well as those whose farmlands, ponds and livestock have been destroyed.

The daily said their demands followed the public admission of Jackson Gaius-Obaseki, managing director of NNPC, that staff working for its subsidiary, the Pipelines and Petroleum Marketing Company (PPMC), collaborated with vandals in rupturing the pipelines which led to the fuel leakages and fires. The Ughelli people said this demand proved that those who died in oil fires were not thieves and economic saboteurs, the daily reported.