Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has said the Federal Government is not serious about the clean-up of Ogoniland.
Wike stated this, yesterday, when he received the Senate Committee on Environment on investigative visit to Ogoniland.
He said Rivers people are tired of procrastination, with regards to the execution of the clean-up and noted that programme has remained a political project aimed at attaining political mileage.
“The federal government is not serious about the clean-up of Ogoniland. We are tired of telling our people that the project will start next year.
“Let it not be a political project. Look at the North East, a commission was established and $1 billion released.”
He said the devastation of Ogoniland has impoverished the people, having destroyed their farmland and fishing waters.
He regretted that, as a state that produces the wealth of the nation, Rivers has no single motorable, federal road.
In his comments on soot, Wike said it was a fallout of oil pollution, and stressed that Rivers people have suffered the health hazards.
Earlier, Committee Chairman, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, said the panel was on oversight visit, to ascertain the level of environmental degradation in Ogoniland.
She said the committee will draw attention to the environmental challenges facing the Ogoni people.
Tinubu said: “We are concerned about these issues. We will use face masks when we get to the location. Face masks will draw attention to the message to the world, on the essence of the clean-up.”
In a related development, the committee has visited oil-impacted sites in Ogoniland, as part of its oversight functions, and promised they would monitor the remediation process to its logical end.
Also, the committee promised that, on resumption of plenary, the chamber will commence scrutiny of the 2018 budget, to ensure what is appropriated for the project.
The senator Tinubu-led committee visited contaminated sites where Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), are carrying out demonstration at Nsisioken Ogale, Eleme Local Government Area and B-Dere in Gokana council.
In her remarks, Tinubu lauded the federal government for including the multi-million naira project in the 2018 appropriation bill, and added that the committee will ensure the success of the project.
She noted that federal government is committing $1 billion for the project and said the fund would only be released when everything needed for the project has been done.
Tinubu said this at the palace of former chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, Mene Godwin Gininwa, and at the demonstration site in B-Dere.
said: “We are in Ogoniland, for an overnight and investigative function. Agitations have been on in respect of the clean-up; but, today, the project has been captured in the 2018 budget.
“We have seen the extent of damage and it is clear that they need clean up. We are here to see the demonstration and solicit support for the success of the project.
“The people must help because if the federal government has come with clean up, the people need to stop vandalisation of pipelines because they are the ones facing the brunt of the disaster.
“The federal government is still committed to the $1 billion, but they have to make sure everything is in place. So, the HYPREP is working to ensure everything is in place before the government will pump in the money because nobody will put in money in a place you are not sure of.”
She, however, said the Senate was committed to ensuring all parts of the country were peaceful, and appealed to Ogoni people to remain calm for the successful cleanup processes in the area.
Meanwhile, Gininwa has urged the Ogoni people to shun violence and killings and added that the time for agitations and war was over to allow for the successful implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme report on Ogoniland, noting that the period was meant for peace and development.
The monarch, who spoke at his home town of Kororkoro, when the committee paid him a courtesy call, stated that the cleanup was important to Ogoni people.
He said they had protested a lot to achieve the project, urging his subjects to maintain peace because the process had commenced.
|Sun
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