The Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth, Nigeria.(ERA) Wednesday, said it will take the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) a hundred years for a clean- up, supposed to last five years in the polluted oil sites in Ogoni land.
The Executive Director of ERA,Dr Goodwin Uyi Ojo made this observation in a press briefing organized in Benin City,the Edo State Capital ,he called for a restructuring and overhauling of HYPREP for it,to be able to meet it’s obligations.
According to him, it was August 4,2011 (nine years now),when the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) submitted a groundbreaking report to the Nigerian Government detailing it’s findings and recommendations on the environmental assessment of the oil polluted Ogoni land.
He stated that,nine years of HYPREP are years of motion without movement,years of unfulfilled promises and years of high- level manipulation by Shell and the Nigerian state. He emphasized that following the “No Clean -up,no Justice” lunched collaboratively by ERA and Amnesty International, that gave a detailed assessment of the Ogoni clean-up process.
HYPREP, rather than address the issues of the clean-up had gone to town with newspaper advertorial claiming that it has done 70 percent of the clean-up,but investigation conducted shows that the complex sites had not been touched, while the less complex 17 sites are yet to be concluded.
The Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth therefore call among other things that: HYPREP was not designed to implement a project, as complex and the size of the Ogoni clean-up, and therefore needs restructuring to position it,for effective clean-up.
That HYPREP procurement process is significantly flawed,and it’s current rate of fund disbursement will mean that it will need a hundred years to effectively utilize a budget that was to last five years.He stated that HYPREPprocess lacks transparency among other things..
Also,it stated that based on ERA /FoEN developed key indicators,the environment has not been remediated and there are no beneficiaries or any livelihood improvement of the Ogoni people,who cry day and night for Justice.
“Nine years of HYPREP are years of motion without movement,years of unfulfilled promises and years of high- level manipulation by Shell and the Nigerian state. Following the “No Clean -up,no Justice” lunched collaboratively by ERA and Amnesty International, that gave a detailed assessment of the Ogoni clean-up process.
“HYPREP, rather than address the issues of the clean-up had gone to town with newspaper advertorial claiming that it has done 70 percent of the clean-up,but investigation conducted shows that the complex sites had not been touched, while the less complex 17 sites are yet to be concluded.
“The Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth therefore call among other things that: HYPREP was not designed to implement a project, as complex and as the size of the Ogoni clean-up, and therefore needs restructuring to position it,for effective clean-up.
” HYPREP procurement process is significantly flawed,and it’s current rate of fund disbursement will mean that it will need a hundred years to effectively utilize a budget that was to last five years.It is also clear that HYPREP process lacks transparency.”
Earlier,Comrade Austin Osakue, in his remarks stated that HYPREP should set up a mechanism to evaluate it’self using key performance indicators.He also stated that ,from the performance of HYPREP,, it does appear that it’s does not have the capacity to carry out a Job as complex as cleaning up the Ogoni land.
