An environmental group, Health of Mother Earth Foundation has called on Hydrocarbons Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to commence a comprehensive health and environmental audit of the Ogoni cleanup project.
It said the clean-up of Ogoni has taken longer than necessary despite the available resources and manpower made available to the coordinating agency, yet, there have been negative impacts of hydrocarbons exploration in the area.
The statement congratulated the newly appointed HYPREP Coordinator, Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, adding that he must do things differently, focus on inclusion of stakeholders in the operations.
The Director, HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey said: “While we congratulate Prof. Zabbey, we equally take the opportunity to register some key urgent demands and hope that he uses his good office to advocate cleanup of the entire Niger Delta. Government should take coordinated action to end pollution including gas flaring.”
He noted that with Zabbey’s pedigree as an academician and activist, the expectations of stakeholders are high and failure is not an option, calling for regular consultations to complex pollution sites.
“We applaud the appointment as he has deep knowledge of the Ogoni environment and has done important researches in the area and in the wider Niger Delta region, coming 12 years after the UNEP report and sluggish manner by which the clean-up has been approached,” Bassey added.
