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©Photo by Sokari Ekine 2000

In May this year, the Nigerian government once again extended the deadline to end gas flaring…Gas flaring is the burning of the natural gas that is produced on the surface during the production process. The flares are either blown off in the sky or in giant sized low level pits on the ground and are in the midst of villages and farmland. They burn gas that produces huge flames and toxic gases. This latest postponement is one in a series  dating back to a December 2007  deadline which which was preceeded by  the original flare-out date of 1984. For a full report on the impact of toxic flares see ERA.

Niger Delta communities have since organised themselves under the umbrella of “Host Communities of Nigeria Producers of Oil and Gas (HOSTCOM)” and will be taking direct action to once and for all force the government into ending this practice.

“You cannot shift the date (for stopping gas flaring) any longer. As from October (next month) the HOSTCOM will take the bull by the horns, gas flaring will be stopped by force whether the Federal Government and the oil companies like it or not,” the group’s coordinator, Mike Emu, said in Benin.

“It is going to be a battle to be fought by the youth, the so called militants, the women and HOSTCOM. It would be a battle royale. But all that government and the oil companies need to do to avert the ‘war’ is to stop gas flaring between now and October and pay up all the outstanding gas flaring penalty levies. From October anything can happen in the region.”

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