Two yet to be named men were on Tuesday apprehended at the Yankari Game Reserve in Bauchi State for killing a buffalo.

The suspects said to be from Mai Ari area in the state were caught by rangers at the game reserve with the buffalo’s head.

It is expected that the suspects will be charged to court.

Yankari National Park is a large wildlife park located in the south-central part of Bauchi State, in northeastern Nigeria. It covers an area of about 2,244 square kilometres and is home to several natural warm water springs, as well as a wide variety of flora and fauna. Hunting is strongly prohibited within the reserve.

Civil society groups are questioning the process being adopted by the federal authorities to remedy the sites of massive oil spillage in Ogoni, Rivers State, Nigeria.

A group, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), said that the status of Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) in terms of its structure, independence, funding, effectiveness, capacity as well of perception of sluggishness due to bureaucracy, politicization, low responsiveness has affected the cleanup exercise.

CISLAC holds that the exercise is now bugged with identity crisis, procedures, processes and overheads. Perception of corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, complex decision making, internal crisis of choice between Ogoni and the Niger Delta.

Kolawole Banwo, programme manager for CISLAC who provided an overview of the UNEP report on Ogoniland at an interaction in Lagos, that HYPREP is now seen as a HY-BRID, made up a project and agency, rather than a specific programme for the Ogoniland clean up. He also noted lack of no sequence of action and prioritization of activities and cost management as well as adherence to original in the process.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released its Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland in August 2011 after series of protests of oil spillage in the community that culminated to the death of Ken Sarowiwa and eight others.

The report commissioned by Federal Government of Nigeria, made recommendations to the government, the oil and gas industry and communities to begin a comprehensive cleanup of Ogoniland, restore polluted environments and put an end to all forms of ongoing oil contamination in the region

Findings in the Report underline that there are, in a significant number of locations, serious threats to human health from contaminated drinking water to concern over the viability and productivity of ecosystems.

In addition that pollution has perhaps gone further and penetrated deeper than many may have previously supposed. Pollution of soil by petroleum hydrocarbons in Ogoniland is extensive in land areas, sediments and swampland.

In 49 cases, UNEP observed hydrocarbons in soil at depths of at least 5 metres. At 41 sites, the hydrocarbon pollution has reached the groundwater at levels in excess of the Nigerian standards permitted by National Laws at Nisisioken Ogale, in Eleme LGA, close to a NNPC product pipeline where an 8 cm layer of refined oil was observed floating on the groundwater, which serves the community wells.

Banwo said that the fatalities occasioned by pollution in Niger Delta, particularly Ogoni had called for serious attention to save lives and property.According to him, there is need to re-visit, and where necessary remediate identified sites.“We are already eight years behind after the report itself was first launched in 2011 and 63 years late after the first oil spill happened in Oloibiri in 1953.

“The Federal Government flagged off the remediation of contaminated sites in Ogoni Land in 2016.“But since then, not much has been done in that direction. The wellbeing of the people in Ogoni and the Niger Delta at large is to say the least pathetic.“Life expectancy has dropped to 40, livelihoods destroyed, inhabitants consume contaminated water 900 times above the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.

“Festival of funerals in the region has become very worrisome, all due to pollution and exposure to environmental hazards.“This calls for the urgent need to review the remediation techniques, repair, maintain and decommission non-producing facilities.“The duty of care point of view upon which the emergency measures are based imposes not just a moral but a legal obligation to prevent harm or compensate victims.

“The 25-year long journey and struggle for the clean up of Ogoniland and the Niger Delta Region is a challenge to our shred humanity.
“It is about the lives of real people whose only offence is that petroleum resources which drives our economy are found in their land. We must keep asking right questions, applying the right pressure and speaking out.

“With the professionalism, courage and persistence of the press we will achieve more and faster. We must do more to get our government to Clean Up Ogoni now”, he said.

Also the Programme Manager, Defence and Security of CISLAC, Mr. Salaudeen Hashim, attributed the slow pace of cleanup and remedial exercise at Ogoni Land to weak institutional and regulatory framework.Hashim said that companies’ collusion, bad governance and corruption were factors, which needed to be addressed to record significant result from the situation in Ogoni. He urged the government to intensify more efforts in ensuring effective institutional and regulatory framework for the region.

Hashim enjoined the Ogoni communities to take proactive stance against theft and illegal refining.He said: “The Ogoni Community is exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons in outdoor air and drinking water, sometimes at elevated concentrations.

“Hydrocarbon contamination is found in water taken from 28 wells at 10 communities adjacent to contaminated sites; and without an adequate regulation framework in tackling the menace, it will continue to multiply”, he added.

 Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, lying at the forefront of China’s fight against desertification, has mobilized 76.6 million volunteers to plant trees over the past seven years, local authorities said Monday.

The campaign has planted 445 million trees to guard north China against sandstorms and desert encroachment in the period, the autonomous region’s forestry and grassland bureau said ahead of China’s Arbor Day on March 12.

The bureau said Inner Mongolia has since 2012 beefed up its tree-planting efforts with measures such as assigning afforestation targets to local officials and encouraging volunteer participation.

The autonomous region has planted over 1.7 billion trees on about 400,000 hectares of lands since 1981, when China started to encourage the public to plant trees.

Inner Mongolia is home to several large deserts such as Badain Jaran, Tengger, Ulan Buh and Kubuqi. Its success in taming desertification in recent decades has been credited to the decrease of sandstorms in northern China.

Xinhuanet

Elephants are in the news. Not many Nigerians know there are elephants in Nigeria. Well, there are. And the news is that they are causing havoc in Lagos and Ogun communities. Elephants from Omo Forest Reserve in Ogun State are said to be on a rampage in some communities.

The Chairman of Active Hunters’ and Farmers’ Club at Epe, Alhaji Ajagunoba Aribada, was quoted as saying in a November 19 report: “We have been facing this situation for the past seven months. The elephants have destroyed all our banana, plantain and cassava farms. We can’t even reach the other parts of the farm because the nursing female elephants are aggressive. This has caused food scarcity in the community.”

Corroborating this disturbing account, the village head of Oki Gbode Imobi, Baale Adeleke Olaitan, said: “Nobody can go to the farm for fear of being attacked. The elephants have eaten all the cassava crops and plantain on the farms. We want them out.”

The elephant invasion has also affected fishing business in the community. “The elephants enter the river to drink and bathe and ruin all the fish traps,” said Ismaila Lekan. “My mother who is into fish business can no longer go about her business because of the fear of the elephants.”

Why did the elephants move out of the reserve, described as “one of the last few elephant habitats in Nigeria”? Farming and quarry activities are to blame. The elephants forced to leave the reserve now roam at the Ogun-Lagos border, where Imobi – Itasin – Epe lagoon communities are located.

The next question is: How were the elephants able to move out of the reserve?  If the elephants had a reason to leave the reserve, that shouldn’t mean they must have a way to leave. The elephants were able to leave the reserve because they could.

If the reserve were properly managed, farming and quarry activities would not have been issues. Wildlife conservation is a serious issue. A report to mark World Elephant Day on August 12 said: “The Wildlife Conservation Society has outlined and advocated the need to increase aerial surveillance in strongholds, train and deploy more rangers in the protected areas, supply new rangers with equipment, assist the authorities in tracking and shutting down trafficking networks, and grow our community development programmes to support local communities to co-exist with wildlife.”

There are plans to create a wildlife sanctuary within Omo Forest Reserve.  The authorities should take action.