Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), said oil exploration by multinational companies was a major contributor to environmental warming and climate change effects in Nigeria.

Coordinator of the organisation, Mr Nnimo Bassey, stated this on Sunday at an environmental awareness campaign tagged “Break Free 2016” in Ibeno, Akwa Ibom.

He said that exploitation of crude oil and flaring of gas had destroyed the ecosystem thereby causing environmental warming in the country.

“We can break free from fossil fuel; we cannot keep on burning fossil fuel and the oil companies knew many years ago that oil extraction causes global warming,” Bassey said.

He said that the spread of chemical in the ocean during oil spills had affected fishing activities in the parts of the country.

According to him, the polluted water has affected the quality and quantity of fish in the ocean.

“It is happening in 15 countries around the world; everybody is saying the use of crude oil, the use of crude, the use of gas is destroying the planet.

“It makes the planet to change, everywhere is hot; it is because when oil is burning, it pollutes the air as the weather is changing,” Bassey said.

He alleged that a scientific study sponsored by a multinational in the area had proved that oil exploration was detrimental to human health and the environment.

“They paid scientists to hide the information so that they can make profits in dollars now that the information is coming out in the USA,” Bassey alleged.

He called on the multinational companies to the leave the oil in the soil, saying that 80 per cent of the chemical kept in the soil had polluted the ocean.

Credit: Guardian