BURNT,
DEPRIVED AND ABANDONED
- INTERVENTION
BY NGOs AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS
LifeTag
had established the Kerosene Fire Victims Welfare Association
(KEVA), a body of the victims, which main object "is the
pursuance of adequate compensation/rehabilitation, justice and
equity. Following some four months of steady work in this direction
by LifeTag, the Access to Justice (AJ) came on board, after
the initial intervention by the Save Accident Victims Association
of Nigeria (SAVAN). The Center for Constitutionalism and Demilitarization
(CENCOD), Forum for Peace and National Unity, African Network
for Environment and Economic Justice, the Civil Liberties Organization
(CLO), a leading Nigerian human rights NGO, et al, are also
in the coalition. Others are Center for Right to Health (CHR),
Women Advocacy, Research and Documentation, (WARDC), Legal Defense
Center (LDC), Constitutional Rights Projects (CRP), Legal Defense
and Assistance Project (LEDAP), Baobab for Women's Human Rights
(BAOBAB) and others. LifeTag champions the fight and is convener
of the Group.
- OUR
ADVOCACY THRUST SO FAR
The matter had assumed a lofty height, mainly in the areas of
lobbying by correspondence, public awareness/sensitization and
mobilization. The Coalition has also made some bold steps at instituting
lawsuits to enforcing the rights of the victims, apart from taking
the matters before the National Assembly (the Senate and the House
of Representatives).
- LOBBYING
BY CORRESPONDENCE
Letters had been written to the NNPC and Edo State Government.
Although the former partially responded dodging the substances,
NNPC, once more, treated the letters with disdain. It did not
respond to any. Letters had also been written to some key NGOs,
agencies, institutions and top government functionaries, including
the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo, acquainting them with the plights of the victims, and
requesting for their intervention.
- DEMANDS
FROM NNPC AND EDO STATE GOVERNMENT
- Undertake
free medical treatment, especially surgical operations abroad
for all those still in need of it.
- Provide,
without further delay, adequate assuagement to the victims in
financial, material and psychological terms.
- Take
immediate steps to punish all those responsible for the adulteration
or contamination of the kerosene products or mistaken product
lifting, leading to the explosions.
- Provide
scholarships up to university level, for school age children
affected by the explosions.
- To
Edo Government: Publish without delay, the government's white
paper on the Wilson Commission, and the amount of money received
on behalf of the victims and how it was applied.
- MASS
MEDIA CAMPAIGNS
The amalgamated mass media (the print and electronic), true to
type, have proven to be the conscience of the society, where the
NNPC and Edo State Government have been conscience-less to the
victims' predicament. With press confabs and interviews frequently
held, the media, in the recent times, has given prominence to
the explosion matters. For instance, The Guardian, instead of
commenting on the inauguration to office of President Obasanjo
on May 29, 2003 dedicated its editorial to the kerosene explosion
issues.
- MASS
PROTEST ACTIONS IN EDO STATE
Protest marches (organized by LifeTag) have been taken to the
NNPC's corporate headquarters in Abuja, the federal capital city;
the latest being a three-day picketing of the aforesaid premises,
and peaceful procession through some of Abuja's major streets.
Unfortunately, Mr. Gaius-Obaseki, NNPC's Group Managing Director,
during all the protestations, avoided the protesters, although
he was conspicuously present in his office.
Many
protest marches have also been held in Benin City; to the NNPC
zonal office, Edo Ministry of Health, House of Assembly and Government
House etc. Like Mr. Gaius-Obaseki, Governor Igbinedion, though
was in his office, avoided the protesters, hundreds of whom, on
each occasion, remained at the main entrance to the Governor's
Office for hours. Instead of granting audience to the victims,
the governor's aides threatened, on all occasions, to arrest them
- (The Insider Magazine, February 17, 2003).
- NNPC's
KEROSENE EXPLOSION TRUST FUND.
Ostensibly, in a bid to douse public resentment over its condemnable
stance on the explosion, NNPC had only lately announced its intention
to establish a Kerosene Explosion Trust Fund for the Edo victims
and others in the country. This, it said, it was going to do "on
humanitarian and social corporate responsibility grounds."
Invariably,
if NNPC was humane enough as it now claims, why did it have to
wait until two and half years, knowing that the victims had been
suffering, greatly, due to neglect? Following the case of Miss
Patience Ebala (a victim who had sought succor from NNPC), LifeTag
and KEVA, through a press statement, had accused the corporation
of "playing to the gallery". In a letter by the corporation,
dated October 15, 2002 and signed by one S. B. Douglas, for General
Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, it turned down Ebala's
request for assistance to undergo plastic surgery. Of course,
the NNPC's Trust Fund thing has been greeted with public indifference
or doubts, as attested to by a joint press statement by LifeTag
and KEVA.
"It
(trust fund) would not assuage all the pains of the victims. Even
if the Edo victims were paid all the monies in NNPC's coffer,
justice and equity, the most vital issue of the explosion incidents
would still be omitted. Justice and Equity, if not visited on
the issue will not serve as deterrent to further occurrences",
the statement averred.
- COLLECTIVE
RESOLVE BY THE NGO COALITION
Determined at solving the Edo Kerosene explosion puzzles, the
intervention by the coalition of NGOs remains the only result-oriented
option.
- FUNDRAISING
FOR THE VICTIMS
With the rebuff of these hapless victims by the Edo State Government,
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiary
Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) and others, it
certainly behooves on public-spirited institutions, organizations
and individuals, local and international, to come to the urgent
rescue of these innocent lives that are being wasted by sharp
official practices and insensitivity. This is against the background
that Edo is one of the oil producing states in the country. Mournfully,
its citizenry is continually denied the benefits of the oil wealth.
It is on these premises, therefore, that a distress call is being
made to all and sundry to render humanitarian assistance to the
victims, in these areas:
- Funds for general rehabilitation of the Victims.
- Medical
treatment (especially overseas) for the over 200 victims in
need.
- Award of scholarships for school-age children who cannot continue
their education because of the effects of the blaze.
- Donation of relief materials (clothing, household property,
foodstuff etc)
- Prevail on/lobby NNPC, Edo State Government and all the concerned
authorities; for humane considerations over the plights of the
Victims, and expedite actions accordingly.
Financial
assistance should be channeled to the victims through:
United
Bank for Africa (UBA) PLC
Akpakpava Branch,
Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
Account No 0442180002830
Account Name: Kerosene Fire Victims Welfare Association (KEVA).
FOR
OVERSEAS DONATIONS
US
Dollar Transfer
Federal Reserve Bank
New York
ABA # 026000110
Credit to: UBA PLC, Lagos FCD Account.
British
Pound or Euro
Banque Nationale De Paris
8-13, King Williams Street
London EC 4P 4HS.
Credited to: UBA PLC Lagos FCD Account
For further information, please contact:
LifeTag,
#4, Soji Adepegba Street,
(1st Floor, IFEMOD House),
Off Allen Avenue,
Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.
Tel/Fax: (234)-1-7745291, (234) 803-7118466
Email: lifeagenda@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER
THE KEROSENE FIRE VICTIMS WELFARE ASSOCIATION (KEVA), WITH LIFETAG
AND THE COALITION GROUP, HAS DISOWNED THE SEVEN-MAN-COMMITTEE
SET UP, RECENTLY, BY THE EDO STATE GOVERNMENT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR
THE REHABILITATION OF THE VICTIMS. FOR THE COMMITTEE COULD BE
SELF-SERVING AND MAY DIVERT SUCH FUNDS AS GOVERNMENT HAD DONE
TO CHARITABLE DONATIONS IT EARLIER RECEIVED ON BEHALF OF THE VICTIMS.
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