Some Niger Delta groups, Ogoni-American Organisations, National Union of Ogoni Students and Centre for Democracy Human Rights and Anti-Corruption and Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, have called on President Bola Tinubu-led government to ensure a total cleanup of oil spills in Ogoniland, Rivers State. They also asked him to bring more development to the area.
Ogoniland, which has several oil-bearing communities, is among the major areas affected by crude oil spill since the discovery of oil in the region.
The group in a statement jointly signed by the President of NOUS Int’l USA, Pius Nwinee, its Secretary General, Sampson Npimnee, Coordinator, CDHRAC Int’l, US, Cornelius Dumerenee, and its Secretary General, Toate Ganago, enjoined the President to compensate the people of the area for the loss they had suffered over the years.
It partly read, “NUOS Intl, CDHRAC AND MOSOP wish to call on the Ministry of Niger Delta Development to ensure a total cleanup of Ogoniland and compensate the people of the area for the loss they have suffered over the years.
“Our people have been deprived of their means of livelihood and they have been left to suffer in a nation where they have contributed a lot to through their natural resources.
“Rather than developing Ogoniland through the cleanup projects embarked upon by the ministry few years back, 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 contractors that perpetuate more contamination in the area.”
They said time had come for the government to correct what they termed the anomaly of the past, adding, “We are calling on the new administration of President Bola Tinubu to make life better for our people. There is no way life would continue the way it is in the area at the moment.”
Credit: Punch
