Clean-Up: Ogonis Threaten To Protest Against FG

More than two years after the federal government flagged off the clean-up of the heavily polluted Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta region, leaders from the area have criticised the project implementation as “flawed”.
The project, before now, had suffered several delays in its implementation.
The clean-up was recommended by the United Nation Environmental Programme (UNEP) in its report in 2011.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who read President Muhammadu Buhari’s address at the June 2016 flag-off ceremony, had said the project would be vigorously pursued and would have sustainable development components which would benefit the people.
But the Ogoni leaders, under the aegis of the Gbo Kabaari Ogoni (The Ogoni Elders’ Forum), on Monday in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, said the project implementation was at variance with the recommendations of the UNEP Report, as well as the assurances given by the federal government.
A former senator and the Chairman of the Gbo Kabaari Ogoni, Bennett Birabi,  read out the position of the group to journalists in Port Harcourt.
The statement was jointly signed by him and the Secretary of the group, Desmond Nbete.
“The Ogoni issue has been fraudulently exploited to score cheap public relations benefits at every opportunity,” the Ogoni leaders said while assessing the progress made so far in the clean-up project.
They said the federal government has failed to provide “adequate sources of drinking water” to the people affected by pollution, among other things, as recommended in the UNEP Report.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana