Title: Niger Delta Groups Seek Review of Gas Flaring Rules, Demand Penalty Funds for Impacted Communities Date Published: 02 March 2026 Description: A coalition of environmental and civil society organisations from the Niger Delta has called on President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly to urgently review Executive Order 9, arguing that Nigeria’s gas flaring penalty regime has strayed from environmental protection into a revenue-driven system.Operating under the banner of Concerned Environmental Organisations, the groups made the call at a World Press Conference held in Abuja over the weekend.Speaking on behalf of the coalition, Comrade Itsede Victor faulted the continued remittance of gas flaring penalties into the Federation Account, describing it as unjust to Niger Delta communities that bear the brunt of environmental degradation and public health risks linked to routine gas flaring.The coalition insisted that penalties imposed on oil and gas firms should function strictly as deterrents and tools for environmental remediation, not as an income stream for government. To this end, they urged President Tinubu to immediately exclude gas flare penalties from Federation Account revenues and ensure that all outstanding and future collections are ring-fenced for environmental clean-up, healthcare delivery, poverty reduction and sustainable development projects in affected Niger Delta communities.“Gas flaring penalties must serve their true purpose as deterrents. Penalising pollution must never become a business model,” the coalition declared.They warned that peace and stability in the Niger Delta would remain fragile without tangible environmental justice, urging the administration to align its Renewed Hope Agenda with concrete actions that prioritise the welfare of oil-producing communities.Victor posed a broader policy question: “Should gas flaring penalties serve as a deterrent against environmental destruction, or should they continue to function as a source of government revenue?”The groups cited scientific evidence linking decades of gas flaring to the release of hazardous pollutants—such as methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter—which are associated with respiratory illnesses, cancers, skin diseases, reproductive health challenges, acid rain, soil infertility, water pollution, biodiversity loss and declining agricultural productivity.Despite Nigeria’s international commitments to end gas flaring, the activists noted that the country remains among the world’s leading gas-flaring nations, attributing this to weak regulatory enforcement and ineffective penalty regimes.Under Executive Order 9, gas flaring penalties collected from oil and gas companies are remitted into the Federation Account through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. The coalition argued that this arrangement has commercialised environmental violations, while host communities receive little or no compensation, remediation or development support.They also referenced a 2019 judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which affirmed that the right to a clean and healthy environment is intrinsic to the constitutional right to life, and that citizens and civil society organisations have the standing to challenge environmental abuse.In addition, the groups cited provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 that prohibit gas flaring except under lawful conditions and mandate that gas flare penalties be applied to gas infrastructure development and community-based projects.Further concerns were raised over findings by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and National Assembly oversight committees, which have documented unauthorised gas flaring, poor compliance with penalty payments, delayed remittances and persistent regulatory failures.The coalition warned that any executive attempt to divert gas flare penalties from their statutory purposes without legislative approval would constitute a breach of existing laws and undermine constitutional governance.They also alleged that significant volumes of gas flare penalty funds have remained warehoused at the Central Bank of Nigeria for years, arguing that redistributing such funds nationwide—rather than deploying them directly in impacted communities—effectively shifts the burden of pollution onto victims while spreading its financial benefits across the federation. Attached Images: 84b772ed93e306f52572b85e7134cf21760037dca2fa05bb97fed891a6a3a73b.jpg Attached Video: None