‘Ogonis Working Against UNEP Report’ …As Stakeholders Demand Ogoni Environment Restoration Agency

Some stakeholders and activists from Ogoniland have demanded for an Ogoni Environment Restoration Agency to replace HYPREP, an agency set up by the Federal Government to implement the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report in the area.
They warned that the more the recommendations of the UNEP report is being delayed the more the report is outdated.
Speaking during a media interactive programme organized by Silverbird Communications in Port Harcourt last weekend, spokesman for the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, Bari-Ala Kpalab said so far, HYPREP has failed to meet the needs of Ogoni people, stressing that the standard of clean up specified by UNEP has not been met by HYPREP.
In the view of Kpalab, the Federal Government has displayed double standards which falls short of the UNEP report, stressing that, “Ogonis did not embrace HYPREP or appoint anybody because from the onset it did not meet the standards prescribed by the UNEP report”.
He also disclosed that even cancer registries recommended to be established to address the plight of the people have not been set up leading to more deaths in the area from contaminated water.
Also speaking, an environmental activist, Celestine Akpobari accused the Federal Government of not being committed to implement the report even when Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has confirmed that the funds were ready.
Akpobari accused the federal authorities, especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of contravening the recommendation of UNEP report, saying that “NNPC is as guilty as Shell because in the first place, they did not have any moral reason, no law was made to set up HYPREP”.
The environmental activist said that oil exploration in the area has killed more Ogoni people over the years coupled with the rising pipeline vandalization in the Niger Delta.
Akpobari insisted that one way to curb the effects of the environmental devastation on the people was to provide potable drinking water as recommended by UNEP, and tasked the Federal Government to act fast.