The Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, has again confronted the multinational oil firms for brazenly destroying the Niger Delta environment without adherence to international best practices in their activities.

The Governor said that the mindless activities of the multinational oil firms in the oil-rich state was responsible for the high infant mortality rate in Bayelsa and indeed the Niger Delta.

The State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, quoted the Governor to have said that a UN survey revealed that crude oil spillage causes the death of over 16,000 infants within the first month of birth in the Niger Delta.

Dickson noted that the Niger Delta environment was in turmoil and the livelihood of the people in peril because of the insensitive degradation of the environment by international oil firms, who are driven solely by a quest to make money.

He said that the flagrant abuse of the Niger Delta environment as clearly shown by available statistical evidence, indicated that about 40 million barrels of crude oil are spilled into the damaged environment of the Niger Delta as opposed to four million barrels in the United States.

He lamented that the ravages oil production had reduced life expectancy in Bayelsa and other oil producing states in Nigeria by ten years below the national average.

The Governor said that the Bayelsa State government under his leadership would intensify proactive measures to attract necessary attention to the mindless destruction of the Niger Delta environment and the people’s means of livelihood by the oil firms.