A Non-Governmental Organisation, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) on Tuesday appealed to the new HYPREP Governing Council to establish a centre of excellence for the Ogoni clean-up process.
The Federal Government of Nigeria had recently inaugurated a new Governing Council and Board of Trustees for the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP).
In a statement in Benin city and, jointly signed by Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo and Barr. Mike Karikpo, Programmes Director, ERA/FoEN said the decision of the federal government regarding the new HYPREP Governing Council is an apt and welcome development.
Ojo said the decision of the federal government will enable the government to listen to genuine voices of the people and groups monitoring the cleanup process.
“ERA/FoEN hopes that sufficient consultation was carried out before the new governing council and board of trustee members was appointed.
“ERA expects that these members have the capacity and expertise to oversee a complex and multifaceted undertaking like the Ogoni cleanup process. The new board and the governing council should avoid any potential conflict of interests in the award of clean-up contracts and procurement process that has been a major issue bisecting the clean-up process.
“The Federal Government environmental legacy project in the last four years has been a story of misplaced priorities, politicized clean up, the personal interest of board members overriding the interest of delivering a world-class cleanup process and the critical need to save the lives of our people affected by environmental devastation,” he said.
He added that the slow pace of the clean-up and faulty procurement process are key areas that the present crop of managers should urgently address, stressing the need to “ensure that the major pillar of the clean-up process which is the establishment of the Centre of Excellence to provide capacity building for HYPREP staff and the Ogonis, and document lessons learnt for the replication of the clean-up in the entire polluted Niger Delta is restored.”
