The Federal Government has said the planning stage for the clean-up of Ogoniland has been consistent with the recommendations of the UNEP Report and it is now time for the full remediation of the land and other deliverables contained in the report.
The Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, who noted that there is no going back on the cleanup initiative in Ogoniland, restated government stand on Thursday at the opening of a two-day retreat of the ministry with the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) and its consultants held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to a statement by the Director of Press, Saghir el Mohammed, the minister, represented by his Senior Technical Assistant, Dr Ishiyaku Mohammed, reiterated government’s commitment to the actualization of a friendly and habitable environment in the Niger Delta.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is personally very concerned about the environmental degradation of the region and has already directed for a timely and effective clean-up of the Ogoniland,” he said.
The Federal Government acknowledged that the Ogoni communities have been anxious over the delay in the clean-up of the land but assured that the next phase of the project which the people have been waiting for is here to be implemented.
The minister underscored the importance of a retreat to create the platform for a seamless coordination of the implementation of the remediation projects already advertised and which are expected to commence around September 2018.
Earlier, the Project Coordinator of HYPREP, Dr Marvin Dekil, in his remarks called on the consultants – the Project Management Consultant, Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant and Communication Consultant – to see their roles as complementary and harmonize expertise to deliver on the mandate of the project.
