PENALTIES REVIEWED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ACT VIOLATION BY FG

The Federal Government has said that violators of the provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act will have to pay penalties that are commensurate with their levels of default beginning from April this year.

It said the EIA Act No. 86 of 1992 was being reviewed so that its principles would stop defaulters of environmental laws from violating them.
The supervising Minister of the Environment, Mr. Darius Ishaku, said this at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja on Thursday during the inauguration of the Ministerial Committee for the Review of the EIA Act No. 86 of 1992, energy mix reports.

He said, “Currently, the amount that is expected to be paid by violators of the EIA Act is not in line with current realities. For example, some defaulters would prefer to pay the paltry sum of N1m fine instead of fulfilling the provisions of the Act.

“In this regard, the review will facilitate the prescription of appropriate penalties for violation of the EIA Act in accordance with current realities so as to discourage the would-be defaulters from such violations.”
According to Ishaku, in the recent past, most developmental projects and rapid industrialization had impacted the Nigerian environment negatively.

He said the environmental impact assessment policy was to ensure sustainable development in the country, adding that the agenda was adopted by the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 1992.

The minister said, “This propelled the Federal Government to enact the EIA Act of 1992 as a demonstration of its commitment to sustainable development. Prior to the enactment of the Act in Nigeria, project appraisals were predominantly limited to feasibility studies and economic cost benefit analysis.
“Most of these appraisals did not take environmental costs, public opinion, and social and environmental impacts of development projects into consideration.”

On the uniqueness of the Act, Ishaku said it was meant to prevent, reduce or mitigate the negative effects of projects or activities on the environment before their commencement.

The minister noted that the revised EIA Act would have procedural and sectoral guidelines.
He emphasised that the sectoral guidelines would provide sector-specific guidelines for the preparation of EIA reports, adding that it had been developed for the oil and gas, infrastructural, industrial, agricultural and mining sectors of the economy.

Ishaku named the chairman of the eight-man committee as Dr. Oluwole Ameyan and urged members to ensure that its report would be ready by the March deadline.

Ameyan, who spoke on behalf of the committee, promised that the members would do their best to come up with a reviewed Act in record time.

[ENERGY MIX REPORT]