Onyedi Igwe, Port Harcourt
The Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals has denied emitting soot in the Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital and its environs.
The company argued that its closed system of operation would not allow emitting soot in its environment of operations in Rivers State.
The Head of Corporate Communications of Indorama, Jossy Nkwocha, made the comment while conducting journalists around the facility on Monday.
Nwkocha explained that Indorama maintains a facility that monitors and controls emission.
He stated further that the company supplies fertilizer to over 32 million farmers in the country thereby saving the country from the annual importation of fertilizers at a cost N7 billion,
Nkwocha stated further that the companies activities were open to public scrutiny as it has exhibited high level of consciousness about the environment.
He said: “We have invited this calliber of journalists to this facility because we believe in being proactive. We believe that we are an open book. We don’t have anything. We invited you because of the raging issues of soot.
“Last week, we invited the radio people to come because we were accused of generating soot. Our response has always been to bring them to come and see for themselves.
“We have invited you as a third party to see what we are doing. Indorama does not emit soot whatsoever. There is no soot in Indorama. We have not been accused of soot officially, but because of the rumour here and there we decided to bring you in.”
“Soot is a product of incomplete combustion. We have a facility that we control and monitor our emissions into the environment.
“We subject our facility to audit quarterly. We bring in the auditing team from the agencies of government. If our facility was emitting soot government would have known.”
The company’s spokesman said that the firm was being monitored by relevant government agencies liken the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency and others,
He added that the company would invite Non-Governmental Organizations with a focus on the l on environment, Head of Departments of Environments at the state and federal levels to visit the facility for assessment of its operations.
Nkwocha said the firm produces 3,000,000 metric tons of fertilizers annually and supplied to over 32 million farmers.
He said that the company contributed hugely to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, adding that over 7000 workers were employed by the company.