By Danjuma Amodu
A coalition of more than 50 Nigerian and international environmental organisations has urged the Federal Government to halt any move to resume oil production in Ogoniland, warning that reopening the Yorla South oil field would deepen decades of environmental devastation, undermine ongoing clean-up efforts and reignite long-standing tensions in the oil-rich region.
The groups, in a joint statement titled “Don’t Reopen the Wells — Decommission, Clean Up and Restore Ogoniland,” condemned the reported award of the Yorla South oil field in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State to Dutchford Exploration and Production Company Limited. They insisted that the government’s priority should be environmental restoration rather than renewed crude oil extraction.
Describing the planned resumption of oil production as “another chapter in the Niger Delta’s long history of environmental destruction and human rights violations,” the coalition declared that Ogoniland had suffered enough.
“Do not reopen the wells. Decommission them. Clean them up. Restore the land. Protect the people. Ogoniland has suffered enough.”
— Coalition Statement
The statement was jointly endorsed by Oilwatch International, the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa, CAPPA, Amazon Watch, Oilwatch Africa, Policy Alert and dozens of other environmental and civil society groups across Africa and beyond.
The coalition argued that reopening the oil field would contradict the recommendations of the landmark 2011 United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland. The report documented widespread contamination of soil, groundwater and ecosystems after decades of oil exploration and recommended one of the world’s largest environmental remediation programmes.
According to the groups, despite the establishment of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, to implement the UNEP recommendations, large parts of Ogoniland remain polluted. Many communities continue to suffer from contaminated drinking water, degraded farmlands, destroyed fishing grounds and serious public health concerns.
The organisations said it was incomprehensible that government would contemplate fresh oil production when the environmental liabilities of previous operations have yet to be addressed.
“The answer to this history is not to reopen old wells and begin another cycle of extraction. The answer must be restoration,” they stated.
The coalition also invoked the memory of the late environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the eight other Ogoni activists executed in 1995 after campaigning against environmental degradation and demanding greater control over the region’s natural resources.
According to the groups, reopening the Yorla wells without first addressing historical pollution would amount to disregarding decades of peaceful struggle for environmental justice and the rights of the Ogoni people.
As evidence of the dangers of resuming production, the coalition cited the unresolved oil spill in Kpean, the community hosting 14 of the Yorla oil wells.
It said crude oil escaped from a dormant wellhead in August 2025, contaminating farmlands, streams and drinking-water sources. Another spill months later further devastated the area.
The organisations noted that residents continue to report polluted water sources, destruction of livelihoods, illness among community members and deaths of livestock, alleging that no meaningful clean-up or remediation has taken place.
They warned that restarting production on ageing infrastructure already weakened by decades of corrosion would significantly increase the risk of fresh oil spills and environmental disasters.
The coalition further cautioned against creating “another Ororo-1,” referring to the prolonged hydrocarbon pollution associated with the Ororo-1 offshore well blowout. It also warned against renewed gas flaring and pollution similar to what communities in Okrika and Bille have endured over the years.
The groups therefore demanded an immediate moratorium on any attempt to recommence production at the Yorla South field pending a comprehensive independent environmental assessment, full remediation of the Kpean spill, compensation and healthcare for affected residents, public disclosure of the licence and ownership structure, transparent environmental and social impact assessments, meaningful consultation with Ogoni communities, integrity assessments of existing infrastructure and a legally enforceable framework assigning responsibility for historical and future environmental liabilities.
They stressed that consultation with host communities must go beyond mere formalities and allow residents to play a decisive role in determining the future of their ancestral lands.
The coalition also renewed calls for the international campaign to “Ogonize and Yasunize,” drawing inspiration from the Ogoni people’s successful resistance that halted oil production in 1993 and Ecuador’s 2023 referendum in which citizens voted to keep oil beneath the Yasuni National Park in the ground.
According to the groups, reopening the Yorla South field would not only reverse more than three decades of Ogoni resistance but also weaken a growing global movement advocating that ecologically sensitive territories should be protected from fossil fuel extraction.
The latest intervention comes amid renewed efforts by the Federal Government to increase Nigeria’s crude oil production as part of broader economic recovery initiatives. However, the coalition maintained that economic gains cannot justify exposing already polluted communities to further environmental risks.
“The future of Ogoniland must not be another oil boom,” the statement concluded. “It must be a restoration boom. Ogoniland does not need another barrel of crude. Ogoniland needs justice.”
