Not few Bayelsa State residents are having health issues arising from activities of the various multinational oil companies in the Niger Delta.
This was the assertion of Senator Seriake Dickson in Abuja yesterday when the Global Initiative for Climate and Environmental Sustenance conferred on him an excellence in environmental leadership award 2023.
Dickson is representing Bayelsa West in the Red Chamber and doubles as the Chairman, Committee on Environment and Ecology.
The former Bayelsa governor said many residents of the oil-rich state are suffering from heavy metal poisoning in consequence of the said oil companies’ engagements.
He said the health issue came to light upon random laboratory tests some persons were subjected to, saying the results revealed heavy metal poisoning in many bodies as a result of air and water pollution.
“They also got infected from fishes they caught from polluted water and consumed.
“The scientific report produced at the end of the exercise highlighted the plights of the residents of the oil bearing communities in Bayelsa State in particular and the Niger Delta region in general,” Dickson stated.
