Ogoni land, polluted with oil spills
…Links insecurity in Ogoni to failure of clean-up process
By Davies Iheamnachor
Forum of Ogoni Elders and Leaders under the aegis of Gbo Kabaari Ogoni, has tasked the Federal Government and Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, to stop playing games with the lives of the people of Ogoni ethnic nationality of Rivers State.
The body composed of prestigious sons and daughters of the area also accused HYPREP of failing to deliver the clean-up project transparently to the oil devastated communities of Ogoni, adding that the project was structured to fail the people.
Chairman of the body, Sen Bennett Birabi, in a world press conference in Port Harcourt, yesterday, expressed regret that in a recent performance index released by United Nations Environmental Report office that HYPREP scored zero in eight out of 10 in a performance index produced.
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Birabi bemoaned that HYPREP had failed to deliver the clean-up project to the people, adding that the lives of the people are affected by inactions of the project.
He said: “Regrettably, rather than address the issues so raised, HYPREP has instead continued in the unfortunate path of reinforcing failure and engaging in propaganda to cover up its failures at the expense of the health and lives of the hapless people of Ogoni. Some of the issues we drew its attention to earlier, have now snowballed and assumed very complex dimensions.
“This, in our view, is an insulting conspiratorial arrangement to perpetually under-develop Ogoni. It depicts the manner of games that are played with the lives of Ogoni people, but it has got to stop.”
Birabi noted the clean-up project was to provide employment for unemployed youths in the area involved in artisanal refining and, in effect, help address issues of insecurity in the land, regretting that the failure to meet the emergency need has worsened insecurity in the area.
He expressed worry over lack of attention to the recommendations of UNEP on the area of emergency, adding that the health of the people was endangered by their continuous exposure to the polluted environment.
“The zero score indicated in the by UNEP means, therefore, that we had zero youth employment in those areas, with its very sad consequences on security. We find this unacceptable and it is our view that by any performance metric, the so much harped Ogoni clean-up has failed thus far.
“Sadly, continuously drinking water contaminated with such dangerously high levels of Benzene, a carcinogenic substance, is an obvious threat to this fundamental right of the Nigerian citizen.
“The continuous refusal to implement this all-important recommendation is, therefore, a serious threat to the corporate existence and sustainability of Ogoni people, who as Nigerians are protected by the Nigerian constitution.
“We roundly condemn the unfortunate and offensive attempts by HYPREP to downplay the meaning of “emergency” or, perhaps, input a strange into it. Emergency measures mean emergency measures.”
