- Demands Sack of the Entire Management Structures of HYPREP
- Says Zabbey’s Removal Was Overdue
- Demand Transparency, Financial Responsibility in HYPREP Operations
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to replace the entire board members of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP). Responding to the news of the replacement of Prof. Nenninbarini Zabbey as the Project Coordinator of the Agency, President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke says the minor reorganisation was a welcome development. and in line with MOSOP’s calls for reforms in HYPREP.
Nsuke noted that though the new coordinator is not of Ogoni origin, what is more important is to get HYPREP to be more functional and useful to the Ogoni community noting that HYPREP in its current state is a scandal, an epitome of corruption and financial recklessness.
Nsuke noted that the monumental fraud in HYPREP demands the sack of its entire management and not just the replacement of the project coordinator. He said replacing the project coordinator alone is tantamount to putting a new wine in an old dirty bottle and expressed hopes that Mr. President will take further actions to sanitize HYPREP by sacking the entire boards and reorganizing the governing structures of the agency to rid it of the massive corruption and financial scandals for which the agency has been well known.
“The Project Coordinator does not act alone. In our view, we expect the sack of the entire governing structures of HYPREP to instill some more responsibility in its management” Nsuke said.
The MOSOP leader backed the appointment of a non-Ogoni, Dr. Olufemi Adekanmbi, for the position for the first time noting that for 8 years, Ogonis have occupied the office with nothing to show for it. According to him:
“In the past 8 years, they have appointed Ogonis to that position and there has been nothing to show for it, not even water. HYPREP has only turned into a scandal of corruption. What we want now is results and if we get it from a non-Ogoni, that is fine. It wouldn’t really matter to us if we can see a more responsible and transparent leadership of HYPREP under the new coordinator, Dr Adekanmbi.” He said.
Nsuke likened the appointment of Olufemi Adekanmbi to the biblical story of the good Samaritan noting that sometimes, help comes from those you never expected. Here him:
“”Adekanmbi’s appointment as the new coordinator for HYPREP and the cleanup project is not a problem to us if he fixes the issues and does not see the appointment as an opportunity to make money. Though he is not an Ogoni, it wouldn’t matter to us if he does his job the way he should”
“Like the Biblical story of the good Samaritan, help did not come from a fellow Jew who saw the victim in bad shape and walked away. Help came from the Samaritan who by historical antecedents was an enemy to the jew. So for us, we will test the new coordinator and see how he performs” Nsuke said.
The MOSOP President called for every support necessary to help the new project coordinator to succeed.
Nsuke also called on Mr. President to order the release of the audit report on HYPREP conducted during the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari. The MOSOP leader noted that HYPREP has failed to deliver on its mandate insisting that what is going on in Ogoni is a coverup and not a cleanup.
He said the first signs of the coverup was the exclusion of some 200 oil spill sites from the UNEP study which he says was deliberately intended to downplay the gravity of Shell’s pollution in Ogoni. He further noted that the on-going cleanup has only covered surface pollution with sand, ignored underground water pollution and therefore had been a useless exercise.
