Blessing Iruoma, Port Harcourt
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has reiterated its call on the Federal Government to set aside $100billion for the cleanup of the Niger Delta and compensation to oil spill polluted communities.
ERA made the call during a briefing on Wednesday held in Port Harcourt with the theme “the 9th year of Ogoni environmental assessment report implementation: A Litany of failures and a season of Discontent”.
Speaking on the remediation of Ogoniland by Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), Dr Godwin Uyi Ojo, Executive Director, ERA, called for the restructure of the agency if the government wants to get it right with the cleanup of the area.
Represented by Barr Michael Karikpo, ERA programme Manager, Ojo stressed that HYPREP has failed and neglected to implement the UNEP recommended emergency measures taking direct aim at further disempowering women in Ogoni who are the care givers in our communities.
ERA also blame the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), for not doing proper monitoring on the remediation process, adding that the integrity of the laboratories used in soil analysis for the cleanup was compromised.
ERA boss said “It has been nine years of motion without movement, nine years of unfulfilled promises, nine years of high level manipulations by Shell and the Nigerian State as well as years of opaqueness and unacceptable operations by HYPREP. It has been nine years cluttered with a litany of failures and continuous discontent throughout Ogoni.
“HYPREP is not designed nor structured to implement a project as complex and sizeable as the Ogoni cleanup
“There are concerns that the laboratories in Port Harcourt where soil samples from the cleanup sites are taken for analysis have been compromised. We have testimonies from workers in the field that most samples do not meet regulatory or contractual requirements, but they are given the all clear by these labs. There are also concerns that some of these labs are owned by contractors engaged in the cleanup process and others are owned by senior officials of HYPREP.
“National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), the body saddled with the responsibility for certification of cleanup and remediation work has not visited these sites to certify that the work done complies with contractual or regulatory requirements but HYPREP and Ministry of Environment have already cleared some of them and asked them to back fill their sites”.
ERA therefore, demands that “The setting aside of $100 billion for the cleanup of the entire Niger Delta region and the compensation of communities and individuals directly affected by over 50 years of oil extraction.
“The Nigerian government’s urgent restructuring, reorganization and complete overhaul of HYPREP in its entirety in order to remove all administrative, financial and political obstacles that are stalling the process of the cleanup process”.
Also speaking, Dr Sam Kabari Sam, Head, Environment and Conservation ,Centre for Environment Human Rights and Development, advised that HYPREP should in hand with NOSDRA to undertake investigations on the cleanup sites, stressing that there is no evidence, statement from NOSDRA to say HYPRED was at the remediation sites.
Dr Kabari said “The Implications of NOSDRA not doing its job, is that contactor’s can claim they have done work whereas they have not done any work. Secondly, people cannot build houses in such places anymore even after the cleanup.
“NOSDRA is not waking up to its responsibilities. Local and private monitors is frustrated because they do not have access to contractors’ book ,as it is only Hyprep that gives approval to such access. We need to know where the level of oil is last week and where it is at the moment, that is the essence”.
He noted the need for establish a law to backup HYPREP, saying that “there are areas in Niger Delta that require 60 years to clean, so if there is no law, any president can come and said, he is no longer interested in the clean up process but the law will make HYPREP to be independent, it is a serious one for the sustenance of HYPREP”.
On his part, Bari-ara Kpalap, Secretary to the Movement for Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), also complained on incompetency on the side of NOSDRA, insisting that the integrity of the cleanup exercise is in doubt.
He said: We saw conflict of interest in the exercise, there are staff of Shell who colluded with NOSDRA and certified sites in Ogoni in 2006 yet UNEP came and declared the same sites as highly polluted.
“These are still the same staff of shell that is the head Technical operations of HYPREP, its the same cover up. Top people in HYPREP are owners of the labs that does not have any integrity, therefore, the integrity of the clean up exercise is in doubt. The way forward is open participation”.
