Nigeria oil company rejects damning Amnesty report

(CNN) — Nigeria’s state oil company rejected criticism from a leading human rights group Wednesday, calling an Amnesty International report “inaccurate.”

“We have issues with the report,” said Levi Ajuonoma, a spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Amnesty said Tuesday that pollution and environmental impacts from the oil industry in the Niger Delta are creating a “human rights tragedy” in which local people suffer poor health and loss of livelihood.

Governments and oil companies are failing to be accountable for the problems, Amnesty said in its report, called “Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta.”

But the state oil company said it was local communities who cause much of the environmental damage by vandalizing pipelines for monetary gain.

“We take environmental damage very seriously,” Ajuonoma said.

CNN