Environmental right activist, Chief (Comrade) Sheriff Mulade today said the people of Niger Delta region are suffering from “Sachoma Cancer”. He attributed the cause of the new disease to gas flaring and illegal oil exploration activities in the region.
Chief Mulade said the people are suffering the dreaded disease without their knowledge.
Mulade disclosed this during a lecture he delivered at the just concluded OML42 Youth Forum held in Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.
Chief Mulade who is the Coordinator, Centre for Peace&Environmental Justice,CEPEJ said,”You need opthalmologist to help you diagnose to enable you get it. It’s a very serious sickness that’s around the environment.”
He said the people of the Niger Delta need to stop or reduce the rate of gas flaring and illegal oil exploration activities in the region.
Chief Mulade also said an awareness campaign need to be created for the people to be aware of the dangers gas flaring and illegal oil exploration activities has done to their health and bodies.
“Our people need to be aware so that they don’t think it’s just one of those common sickness. That’s why we are also trying to create some level of awareness so that they can have deep insights to it “.
Chief Mulade enjoined the people of the Niger Delta region to be extremely careful saying,”it’s no longer about the environment. It’s about our health now.
“We as a people that are involved in it, must stop it for the safety of our lives and our people.”
While noting that the environment is the right, heritage and pride of the people of the Niger Delta, Chief Mulade warned that if they destroy it, they destroy their future.
Chief Mulade explained that they’ve carried out researches especially in areas where there are sooth.
He said when they visited some hospitals, they discovered some persons from the region were suffering from Sachoma Cancer.
“When we go deeper, we were to discover that it’s as a result of gas flaring and its continued effect on our people.”
He said most of the hospitals cannot treat Sachoma Cancer but can only attend to issues of malaria or other ailments because they cannot detect the disease(Sachoma Cancer).
He explained the few hospitals within the region that could detect the disease will only refer their patients to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital,UNTH, Enugu or Lagos State University Teaching Hospital to treatment.
Chief Mulade said even at that, the hospitals do not know the cure of the disease but can only provide some remedy or fly the person abroad for further medical treatment.
Chief Mulade said patients need to go through several machines that will be avle to detect the diseases in their bodies.
Chief Mulade said government must do the needful stressing,”This is a big problem” just as he called on the oil producing States in the Niger Delta region to provide some of the equipments for hospitals like DELSUTH Oghara in their domains to cushion the effect of the disease on their people.
He insisted that a poor man from major oil state cannot struggle from here to Enugu or LUTH in Lagos.
