The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has called on communities in Ogoni to support laid down procedure for the clean-up of the area.
President of MOSOP, Legborsi Pyagbara, made the call during a one-day sensitization on the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for Ogoni stakeholders in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The programme, supported by Catholic Organisation far Relief and Development (CORDAID) has as its theme, “Strengthening Community Awareness on the UNEP Report and Ogoni Cleanup Process”, with partici­pants selected from Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme, the four Local Government Areas in Ogoni.
Top on the programme was the need to understand the activities of Hydrocarbon Pol­lution and Remediation Proj­ect (HYPREP) in the clean-up of polluted sites in Ogoni land and how the Federal Government sub-organ, Creation of the Central Representative Advisory Committee (CRAC) can mediate between the communities and the agency during the process.
Pyagbara, who spoke on the topic “Appraising the Governance Model of the Hydrocarbon Pollution and Remedia­tion Project (HYPREP)”, said based on series of protests by Ogoni people over the degradation of the environment caused by oil spill, HYPREP was set up by the Federal Government to among other things develop concepts for sustainable development of the area so that the community can benefit maxi­mally from the clean-up and start to see “peace dividend”.
He added that the es­sence of the programme was “to let people know the role of HPYREP, CRAC, which is an organ of HYPREP, that mediate between the commu­nities and HYPREP, the communities and the Board of Trustee in the clean-up exercise.”
He noted that participants at the programme are expected re­turn to their communi­ties to sensitize their people on the activities bothering on the clean-up project.
Also speaking, Ogoni activist and one of the programme facilitators, Young Kigbara, explained that the sub-organ of HYPREP was set up as a mechanism for ensuring that all segments of the society in Ogoni land are always kept informed of the clean-up and environment restoration proj­ect.
He noted that “CRAC keeps the communities informed of the progress of the project, addresses grievances from the communities and communi­cate opportunities created by the project.
Kigbara, informed that the “pro­gramme is to dish out more information to the various stakeholders in Ogoni on the clean-up process, saying at the mo­ment there were lots of misleading information which incites peo­ple into taking unnecessary actions.

Dennis Naku