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The House of Representatives on Monday mandated Anthony Ayine, Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF), to conduct an environmental audit across Rivers State with special focus on sudden appearance of black soot in major cities across the oil producing state.
The black soot consists of acids, chemicals, metals, soils, and dust and a major cause of cancer, according to medical experts.
Kingsley Chinda, chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts gave the charge during the presentation of AFG’s report on the just concluded environmental audit of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to the Committee.
Speaking at the interactive session, Chinda (PDP-Rivers), said: “this is a landmark in our history as this is the first time such an audit on our environment will be conducted outside the normal procedures of audits of accounts in our clime.
“I commend your efforts but there is an urgent need to conduct a similar audit in Rivers State on air pollution because of the sudden appearance of a dark soot in the air of major cities of Rivers State as directed by the Speaker of the House via a House resolution.”
The House via a resolution passed on the 6th March 2018, mandated the committees on Environment and Climate Change to check the sudden appearance of black soot in Port Harcourt in response to the motion sponsored by Kingsley Chinda’s motion entitled: Urgent need to check black soot in Rivers state.
The House had mandated both committees to meet with various agencies to probe deep into the remote causes of the soot which most residents complain that it causes rashes and other skin diseases.
Ayine earlier in his report about the FCT, pointed to poor toilet system discharged into the river in areas like Jabi, Nyanya in the FCT as a major source of concern.
The report also indicated poor institutional efforts by those involved in waste management as one of the factors working against good sanitation in the territory.
Ayine explained that: “another challenge is the issue of obsolete environmental laws that needed to be updated if we must succeed.
“Conflict of rules and non implementation of certain laws, obsolete equipment further led to environmental degradation of the territory and there’s need for us to be proactive.
In his response, Kingsley Chinda, said the House received the report on December 19 last year and mandated the committee to act on it.
“The essence of it all is to meet up with international standards as there is environmental audit in other parts of the world.
“Issues of obsolete machines have been raised and that our environmental laws needed to be reviewed to make them impact positively on environmental matters,” he noted.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
