2027: Agbakoba Urges Presidential Candidates to Prioritise Niger Delta Environmental Crisis

• Demands justice for late Joy Amos

  •Establishment of Environmental Restoration Authority for Niger Delta

Sunday Ehigiator

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, has urged presidential candidates ahead of the 2027 general election to make environmental recovery in the Niger Delta a central part of their campaign agendas.

Agbakoba, who chairs Niger Delta Environmental Justice Lawyers’ Forum, also called for the establishment of a statutory Niger Delta Environmental Restoration and Compensation Authority to coordinate the implementation of recommendations from decades of reports and inquiries on environmental degradation in the region.

He made the demand on behalf of the forum in a position paper, titled, “From Oloibiri to Renewal: An Agenda for an Environmental Recovery Compact for Nigeria’s 2027 Presidential Candidates,” issued yesterday in Lagos.

The forum said it was non-partisan and did not endorse any political party or candidate, but was seeking to bring the environmental crisis in the oil-producing region into the national political conversation ahead of the 2027 election.

Agbakoba stated, “The Niger Delta sits at the heart of the national economy and has endured decades of environmental harm, yet it rarely features in presidential campaigns, and no candidate has placed it at the centre of theirs.

“The forum has resolved to bring the Niger Delta into the national conversation, and this is our contribution to that effort. We are asking each candidate one question: what is your agenda for environmental recovery in the Niger Delta?”

According to the lawyers, oil was first discovered at Oloibiri in 1956, after which the Niger Delta bore what they described as the environmental cost of Nigeria’s oil economy.

They said the Ogoni struggle, the work of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), investigations by Amnesty International, successive inquiries, reports, and court decisions had documented pollution, weak prevention and enforcement, delayed or inadequate remediation, disputed spill investigations, as well as harm to health and livelihoods.

The forum identified fragmentation as a major challenge, stating that issues, such as clean-up, compensation, public health, security, divestment and energy transition were being handled separately without a single institution accountable for overall outcomes.
The lawyers said the need for urgent action had been highlighted by the gas explosion in Bille Kingdom, Rivers State, which severely injured Joy Amos on September 3, 2026.

Amos, a resident of Bille Community in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State, subsequently died at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital in Port Harcourt on or about September 21, 2026, after receiving treatment for severe burn injuries.

According to a petition filed before the Magistrate Court of Rivers State by PILEX Centre for Civic Education Initiative, Amos allegedly sustained the injuries in a fire/explosion incident connected with gas leakage in the community.

The petition is seeking a formal Coroner’s Inquest into her death to establish, among other matters, the medical cause of death, the nature and extent of her injuries, the circumstances surrounding the alleged gas leakage and explosion, and whether the leakage caused or contributed to the incident.

The petition also asks the court, where it considers it necessary, to order the exhumation of Amos’s remains for forensic and post-mortem examination by a qualified forensic pathologist.

PILEX said there were reasonable grounds for concern that the circumstances surrounding Amos’s death had not been fully investigated or independently established.

It asked the court to direct the production of her medical records from the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, including admission and treatment records, diagnosis, clinical notes, laboratory and imaging results, and any medical report relating to her injuries and death.
The petitioner also sought the production before the Coroner of relevant reports, photographs, videos, eyewitness accounts, emergency records and other evidence concerning the incident.

The petition stated that the passage of time could affect the availability of physical and forensic evidence necessary to determine the cause and circumstances of Amos’s death.

The application was filed through the law firm of Olisa Agbakoba Legal, with Agbakoba listed as counsel.
The forum said residents had lived with gas allegedly seeping through their soil, water and homes for more than a year and had raised repeated warnings before the explosion.

Independent reports and civil society organisations had also documented concerns over reported gas bubbling and seepage in Bille, while calling for investigation and urgent government intervention.

The forum called for an independent inquiry into Amos’ death, the sealing of the source of the gas, emergency relief for residents, and compensation for her family and other affected persons.

“Her death shows that the Niger Delta cannot wait for another report or another delegation,” the forum said.

“What the region needs now is a clear agenda for action, and the Forum sets out that agenda below,” it added.

The call for an investigation was reinforced by the separate Coroner’s Inquest application, which asked the court to investigate not only the circumstances of the alleged gas leakage and explosion but also whether any person, company, operator, agency or other entity bore responsibility for circumstances contributing to the incident.

On its proposed authority, the forum said it should be established by law and empowered to review and implement recommendations contained in major reports and decisions dating back decades.

These include the Willink Commission of 1958, the African Commission’s decision in SERAC (2001), the Report of the Technical Committee on the Niger Delta (2008), the United Nations Environment Programme’s Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland (2011), and the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission’s report (2023).

The forum proposed that the president set clear timelines for implementation, with the authority responsible for emergency protection of communities at risk, polluter-pays financing through a transparent fund, credible clean-up standards, spill prevention, access to justice, responsible divestment, livelihood renewal and public accountability.

It said the proposed authority should also be accountable to the National Assembly and the people of the Niger Delta.

It stated, “We propose that a Niger Delta Environmental Restoration and Compensation Authority be established by statute to review and implement these reports, with the President setting clear timelines for action.

“That action should cover emergency protection for communities at risk, polluter-pays financing through a transparent fund, credible cleanup standards, spill prevention, access to justice, responsible divestment, livelihood renewal, and public accountability to the National Assembly and the people of the Niger Delta.”

The forum urged every presidential candidate to commit to establishing the authority if elected, or, at a minimum, publicly state their position on the proposed environmental recovery agenda.

“At a minimum, we ask each of them to state publicly where they stand on this agenda,” it said.

Agbakoba said his involvement in environmental justice dated back decades, stating that he served as deputy lead defence counsel to late environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and founded Environmental Rights Action (ERA) in 1989.

He also said he was involved in several landmark environmental justice cases, including Opara v Shell before the Supreme Court and the appeal in Shell v Gbemre.

According to him, he also provided expert evidence on Nigerian constitutional law and the African Charter before the High Court of England and Wales in claims brought by the Bille and Ogale communities over oil spill damage in Rivers State.

“In all of this work, I have sought to establish that oil pollution is a matter of constitutional right, not merely a private grievance,” Agbakoba said.
The forum said its intervention was aimed at moving the Niger Delta environmental debate beyond repeated reports and assessments towards coordinated implementation, accountability and long-term restoration.