The Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi has blamed some Civil Society Organisations as well as some individuals in Rivers for stalling Ogoni clean-up through unnecessary litigations.
Abdullahi stated this while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The minister was reacting to allegations by the Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) against the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) charged with implementing problematic Ogoni Cleanup in Rivers of the slow pace of work as well as embezzlement.
He said: “On the agitation by MOSOP that accuses HYPREP of slow implementation projects, the Federal Government is as concerned as MOSOP in terms of the seemingly slow pace of the project execution.
“But, in most cases, the Federal Government is not the direct cause. Sometimes you find that individuals and CSOs within Ogoniland go to court to obtain one sort of order or another against HYPREP from proceeding with some processes.
“So, it has hampered the process as captured in PPP. As we speak now, there’s a group called the Good Conscience that has gone to court to restrain the Federal Government from continuing with those water projects.
On the allegation of embezzlement against HYPREP, the minister said:
“To the best of my knowledge, some of these accusations, sometimes are not very objective. In most cases, they are propelled by very ulterior motives to distract HYPREP.
“However, we’re open to looking into any allegation that has been made against any of our partners in the ministry.
“So, if there are concrete evidences that show indeed there are embezzlements, of course, you and I know that this President will never take lightly to those kinds of allegations and we will be able to handle them decisively.”
On the funding arrangement to finance the remediation projects and whether or not the IOCs were involved in the contributions, Abdullahi said:
“Yes, they are. There is a dedicated fund being superintended by the Ogoni Trust Fund, which essentially has been pooled together by the IOCs to actually finance the remediation projects under this principle of the polluter pays.
“So, yes, there is a dedicated fund, it is available. Recently, the president approved what we call the Crash Calls to finance this projects in line with the budget as approved by the Governing Council of HYPREP.”
The minister also revealed that the Federal Executive Council approved N123.4 billion for remediation and the execution of a power project in Ogoniland in Rivers.
He said: “On behalf of the Ministry of Environment, I presented two memos to do with remediation and the power project in Ogoniland.
“These two projects actually resonate with the Nigerian government and the United Nations Environment Programme’s objective of providing succour to the Ogoni people, particularly in the areas of livelihood and remediation.
“The first memo is on the remediation of simple hydrocarbon-impacted sites in Ogoniland to be carried out by 35 different contractors, with a completion period of 24 months.
“The cumulative value of the contract is N95, 908, 284, 450.91 billion.
“The second memo which also touches on the livelihood of the Ogoni people is the construction of 132 KV 16 kilometres of transmission lines and 260 MVA Power Substations in phase I of the Ogoni Power Project.”
He said that the council approved N27, 585, 539, 410.13 for the project and it has a completion period of 12 months.”
