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NUOS Int’l USA, CDHRAC Int’l USA, MOSOP Fault Nigerian Government Over Excuses On Failure On Ogoni Cleanup

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The Ogoni – American organizations; National Union of Ogoni Students, NUOS Int’l USA, Center for Democracy Human
Rights and Anti- Corruption and Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP have faulted the Federal Government of Nigeria on why efforts to clean up oil spills in Ogoniland, Rivers State is being prolonged.

Minister of the Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, was quoted to have said last week that the litany of litigations from Ogoni indigenes were affecting the clean-up, and that government had identified additional 635 hectares of contaminated shoreline in the area.

The minister stated this at the eighth edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration scorecard series (2015-2023), in Abuja.

“…It is because of devastation of the ecosystems and their land and the activities of oil firms, particularly Shell, which led to agitations and that led the Nigerian government to establish Hydro-carbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP)…On the part of government, we are focused on delivery and objectives of the Ogoni clean-up. We have a roadmap and a plan as spelt out by the water programme, which is also supported by the Federal Government.

“Part of what we are doing at the moment is survey of the sites and remediation. We are on course. Yes, it is normal for a group to be angry. My take is that most of the challenges we are facing are from there. People go to court to obtain orders, either ex parte or interlocutory orders to restrain us…Sometimes, the blame is not really from government. It is the people in one way or the other, doing all these, to slow down the clean-up. But, we’re doing everything to address the challenges,” he said.

Abdullahi said in addition to Nigeria being committed to fully implementing the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Report on Ogoniland, the ministry had spent more than N3 billion to construct six water supply schemes with a capacity of supplying 2,400m3 of potable water per day to affected communities across the four local government areas of Ogoniland.

The group added in a statement jointly signed by the President of NOUS Int’l USA, Pius Barikpoa Nwinee, it’s Secretary General, Sampson B Npimnee, Acting Coordinator, CDHRAC Int’l, USA, Deekor Adokor, and its Secretary General, Toate Ganago dated Sunday December 11, 2022 and made available to journalists, that the excuse was not acceptable.

“NUOS INTL, CDHRAC AND MOSOP position on the ongoing clearing is clear and unambiguous as such, we reject the position of the Minister of the Environment because it is not just misleading but wrong. In that, there has not been any single litigation to stop the cleaning in any way, if any, such litigation is wrongful death.

“However, instead, what has plagued the project is the government and HYPREP kickback and kickfront, the government’s refusal to hire competent international remediation firms and HYPREP hiring unqualified contract that placate and perpetuated more contamination in the area,” the group said.

According to the group, the activities of HYREP, which they said they have consistently criticised, leave much to be desired and expressed surprise that Abdullahi could come up with “such excuses to explain away the inadequacies of the federal government in Ogoniland.”

“This is what we have constantly spoken against. We saw this coming and we will not allow the Nigerian Government to hide under litigations to abdicate its responsibility over the people that are producing wealth for the nation.

“Our position is that Shell Oil cannot continue to pollute our land without accepting responsibilities for what they ought to do. The Federal Government ought to be proactive and ensure that HYREP carries out its duties effectively and end years of suffering that the Ogoni people have had to endure.”

The groups had, in a recent letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, recommended that an international remediation firm reputed with complex knowledge best practices in deforestation, coastal erosion and
ecosystem remediation should “take over the ongoing cleaning of the Royal Dutch Shell decades of oil pollution and
ecological war as well as end the HYPREP cutting corner policies in the area.”

They urged the “United Nations to make the declaration in part, to protect Ogoniland and Ogoni people from the Royal Dutch Shell’s decades of environmental misery and in whole, to stop Nigerian government and the Royal Dutch Shell from further subjecting Ogoni, Ogoniland and Ogoni people to the Royal Dutch Shell’s ongoing occupational pandemic.”

The groups then expressed surprise that rather than “taking the bull by the horn, the Federal Government is coming up with excuses that can never be acceptable to the people, who are not only losing their sources of livelihood, but losing their lives to the environmental degradation going on in Ogoniland.”

They urged the United Nations “to declare a state of climate and health emergency in Ogoniland or impress it upon the Nigeria government and the Royal Dutch Shell to immediately contract international remediation firms with professional experience and technical know-how capacity to stop this man-made outbreak misery,”

According to the groups, it is unfortunate that the Nigerian government “could come up with filmsy excuses, when they ought to address the issues on ground and clear the Augean Stable and take responsibility for all that is happening in Ogoniland and make life better for the people of the area.”

They emphasised that time has come for the government to “correct the anomaly of the past rather than looking for an escape route over what should be their responsibility as a government that is benefitting from the same land.

“They are looking for excuses to blame or scapegoat Ogonis as if Ogoni is the perpetrator of their own evil and activities in the land.”

The groups suggested that the Nigerian government should “impress it upon UNEP to re-cost the project to cushion the long delay, inflation and recent or ongoing pollution to find lasting solutions to the issues of corruption confronting the entire clean up in the area.”

They added that “Ogoni’s devastation of 50 years couldn’t be compared to Gulf of Mexico’s oil spillage that took whopping sum of $20b.

“The devastation of Ogoniland should not be allowed to continue unabated so that the situation will not get out of hand.”

“We are calling on the Nigerian Government to urgently act on the matter and make life better for our people. There is no way life would continue the way it is in the area at the moment.

“Our people deserve the best at this material time and we will not allow the degradation in the land to continue unending.

“We demand an end to the suffering of our people so that they can live a normal life like other Nigerians, especially at this period that Nigerians are battling with serious economic crisis.

“Finally, given that the Minister of the Environment has admitted its failure and the failure of HYPREP, we are calling on the FG to declare a state of climate and health emergency in Ogoniland in conjunction with the United Nations so as to give adequate attention to the radioactive outbreak as well as hire international firms with professional experience and technical know-how to contain this misery,” the statement read.

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