…says report on dead fishes in brackish waters in Bonny yet to be submitted
By Emman Ovuakporie
Hon Dagomie Inombek-Awaji Abiante has said establishing a fishery institute in the brackish marine environment of the Niger Delta could earn Nigeria as much as N500 billion annually from fish exports alone.
Abiante a second timer in the House of Representatives, represents Opobo Ndoni/Nkoro Federal Constituency of Rivers State made this disclosure in a chat with TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) on Tuesday.
The Rivers State born lawmaker explained that”establishing the research institute in the brackish axis of the Niger Delta region will go a long way in saving over 20,000 fish species in the brackish marine life.
“Nigeria annually spends $1bn to import fish and we can replicate this by having a fishery research institute that will protect this species of fish and put structures in place for export purposes.
“This will go a long way in helping us earn the much expected foreign exchange and create massive employment in the brackish axis.
“Sister industries will crop up in the brackish marine axis that will further provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youths and more boats will be constructed like the popular Nembe boats for fisher men.
“Through researches by the institute aquatic life will be saved from going into extinction.
On the dead fishes found in Bonny offshore late last year, Abiante said”we are still waiting for Federal Government report on what caused the massive death of those rare species of fishes.
“When the report is finally released we can now take a proper look at it and know precisely what led to their deaths.
TNG recalls that last year April at the peak of the Covid 19 pandemic, three states in the Niger Delta woke up one morning to see dead fishes in their coastline.
The massive die-off was first reported in February when community people from Ogbulagha Kingdom of Delta State raised an alarm on the schools of dead fish floating and littering their shores. The silvery fish graveyard stretched from Delta State through Bayelsa State to Rivers State.
In response, officials of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) took samples of the fish, sediment and water for analysis.
Idris Musa, head of NOSDRA, declared the die-off had nothing to do with the continual oil leakages from offshore platforms as claimed over the years by Amnesty International, the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), and dozens of environmental organizations including those in Nigeria itself.
Musa admitted that the values of cadmium and iron were higher than the regulatory limit, according to a post that appeared on the NOSDRA website.
But environmentalists including Ako Amadi and Nnimmo Bassey of the Health of the Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), failed to find satisfaction in the NOSDRA report, finding it too superficial to be taken seriously.
They accused NOSDRA of playing down and even questioning the fact of the massive fish kill that was evident in many locations.
“The Ministry of Environment and relevant agencies have a duty to tell Nigerians what killed the fish so that we know how to respond to this and future incidents,” said activist Nnimmo Bassey. “We are not satisfied with NOSDRA’s report as this does not bring a closure to the saga.