A former president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), Barrister Ledum Mitee, and some members of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Programme (HYPREP) have sharply disagreed on whether or not the clean-up process of oil polluted sites has actually commenced in Ogoniland.
While Mitee criticised what he described as “political hype” surrounding the clean-up of hydrocarbon polluted sites in Ogoniland in compliance with the recommendations of the 2011 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report, HYPREP officials said the clean-up process was effectively ongoing.
Mitee, in an exclusive interview with The Tide, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, said the reality on ground does not show that there is any clean-up work going on in Ogoniland, adding that there was so much hype such that it has created a gap between what is reported and what the people of Ogoni know about the clean-up process.
His words: “If you were to go to the streets of maybe, Bodo, K-Dere, or any of those communities very much affected by oil pollution, and ask the people what they know about the implementation of the report, and their expectations, they will simply tell you that they don’t know if anything is happening, yet.
“It seems to me that there is too much political hype on this issue of implementation. This has created a gap between what they read in the newspapers and what the people even think is going on. I, therefore, feel that when the Federal Government is ready, and seriously activates the process, the people will feel the impact, and the media does not need anyone to tell them that work has actually started,” Mitee said.
The former president MOSOP also said the issue of insecurity in Ogoniland was not an excuse for the non-commencement of the clean-up process in Ogoniland.
According to him, “Where is there no violence? Is there any where that there is no violence? If you hear that there was an orchestrated shooting in the Presidential Villa, so, does that stop the Presidency from functioning? I don’t think perceived violence in Ogoniland is an excuse for the slow implementation of the UNEP report recommendations.
“It is the duty of security agencies and law enforcement officers to maintain law and order in accordance with the provisions of Section 14 of the Constitution, to wit: ‘The primary purpose of government is the welfare and security of the people’; so, if they cannot achieve this, then there is no need for us to have a government.”
However, the Project Coordinator of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Programme (HYPREP), Dr Marvin Deekii, has dismissed claims that the Federal Government has not started clean-up work on the oil polluted sites in Ogoniland.
Deekii, while speaking with The Tide in an interview in Port Harcourt, said the setting up of the Governing Council and the Board of Trustees and inauguration of same for the clean-up of Ogoniland by the Federal Government means that work has commenced.
Also speaking, a member of the BoTs of HYPREP, Dr Peter Mayday, disagreed with Mitee’s insinuation that the Federal Government has not commenced clean-up of Ogoni oil spill impacted sites.
Mayday admitted that though, the process of the UNEP clean-up is slow, but the Federal Government was certain to deliver on the mandate based on the UNEP recommendation.
His words: “Yes, the process is slow, we agree, and the reason is that we are trying to do everything we can to make sure that we put the right structures in place to ensure sustainability and continuity of the process. We want a situation where the process will not be truncated by the exit of the present administration. So, the first thing we had to do to avoid this is the incorporation of the Ogoni Trust Fund as a legal entity.”
He explained that logistics and modalities for the Ogoni clean-up are on-going as companies are already carrying out soil test in Ogoniland.
According to him, “I can tell you that cleanup process is on to test the soul in order for them to know technology that they would use to do the cleanup in Ogoni, so this cleanup is already on-going, it is just that they are taking time to test those technologies to be used for the work, so if anybody tells you that the cleanup is not on the person does not love Ogoni.”

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana